Phubbing
Yes, I am addicted. You may call it Candy Crush or Bejeweled. I say its crystal meth and I recently realized that it has become a world epidemic and extremely worrisome that people have coined a term “Phubbing” for it. “Phubbing” is the term for snubbing, but with your phone! Now you are probably wondering if you are also guilty of this rude and alienating phenomenon and thinking, nah! I’m not like that at all, not me! But deep down, you know you probably actually are. Admit it, there have been times when you have taken out your phone in the company of friends or family and just drifted off from the conversation or got distracted by whatever presents itself on your mobile. Let’s face it, we’ve all been there at some time or another.
How long can you last without checking your smartphone? An hour? Two? A day? According to a Time magazine survey, one in four people checks their phone every 30 minutes. This shows how dependent people are on electronic devices. Smart phones today are an essential part of life. But they have also created phubbers. Their eyes typically focus on nothing but their phones. Their ears normally have earphones stuffed into them. Their emotions rest on how quickly content loads.
We have clicked the keys more than we have dialed the tones. Text Messaging evolved from Happy Birthday to HBD and all the short forms like LOL –Laugh Out Loud where you are practically not even laughing to the recent use of “hashtag” for anything and everything!
Where is the world heading? The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they are friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit that they are just tobacco farmers in t-shirts selling an addictive product to the world. Because, let’s face it: checking your likes is the new smoking. Philip Morris just wanted your lungs, the Appstore wants your soul. The hyper generational segregation of our time is bizarre, unhealthy and historically unprecedented.
It has become a separate culture on its own and that’s because the internet, which was supposed to unite the world has become to adapt in serving us personalized content. People get news feed with customized stories based on what we have clicked in the past. We are great consumers, but poor producers. We will buy what we can’t afford, with money that we don’t have, to impress people we don’t even know. Now let’s get to the solutions. If you think I’m suggesting that we just give up cell phones, well, not really. Of course, we can’t give up cellphones; it’s completely impractical. Not only have we invested too much of our own money into these things but our lives revolve around them. Think about it. We bank with them, email with them, shop with them, order things with them. We do everything with them. And they’re not bad to have in case of a real emergency. So, What can we do? It is up to us how we choose to use it. How much are you willing to give up. If you feed the beast, that beast will destroy you. So, try to put the phone down, or, ideally, out of sight. Turn off your notification; silence your ringer. Most importantly be present in the moment.
I will share the secret remedy to this disease. Its just 3 letters -DWA -“Divert daily, Withdraw weekly, Abandon annually.”