Are smartphones dehumanising us? It is no secret that the world is passionate about a 5.6-inch robot glued to our hands. Whether is a kid, teen or adult, we rely too much on a small hand-held device to communicate our feelings online, yet why is it so difficult to do the same with our friends or family offline? Are we abandoning the real people around us so we can be the creators controlling our own universe at just a tap of a finger?

I conducted a survey which involved several teenagers all familiar with the term “social media”. I asked them the question “do smartphones make your life easier or dehumanise you?” Surprisingly, 29% of people said that it dehumanises us AND 29% also said that it makes our life easier. Collectively, most of the people who said “yes, it makes our life easier” gave the excuse that “we use technology to do human things, like connecting with that friend that moved away”. While others, give a more insightful way of life: “I think that technology completely strips us of real human contact and it makes us focus on perfection, when perfection is not what we need and it completely messes us up and our judgement and one day it’s going to destroy the quality of the human race because everyone wants to be perfect and social media just filter out all the bad stuff. Too many people have it and too many people want to be famous for it. It just makes you lose all of its humanity, and all of your morals and all of your self-respect”.

SEPARATION ANXIETY

We know that phones are reducing our real-life contact yet, why don’t we care?  According to leading neurologists, the ventral tegmental area of the brain provides humans with a huge dose of dopamine every time we receive a text message, phone call or notification. Personally, who can relate when I say that I worry more about my cyber life than the real world that is around me and the people who are willing to have a proper conversation. Without my phone, I experience separation anxiety. It’s obvious that we focus on our cellular devices rather than our work which has an effect on our quality of work.

WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS

Smartphones are just as addictive as narcotics. Many (including me) feel the need to check their phone every few seconds even though we know that we don’t have any text messages or calls. Many young adults today believe that phones are indeed dehumanising us. We are acting like fewer humans and more like machines. We think we have better control over our lives because we have a ‘thing’ in our pocket but the truth is that it is keeping us from real human contact. Cherish the moments you have.

DISCONNECT TO CONNECT