Are Cell Phones Slowly Killing Us?
What a happy way to begin the day, right? I mean, really... Cell phones? Killing us? That's preposterous, Ken. Well sure, of course you think that, because you're addicted to your cell phone. Yes, you, reading this article right now.
Let's back up a bit to give you some context as to how I came to this wacky conclusion. Last week, I was reading through posts on Coil as I normally do, when I came across an article called A bad day? by Sandra Scala @theminduntangled.
Sandra's articles are always so heartfelt and pure, so I was looking forward to reading it. To my pleasant surprise, she had embedded a YouTube video into her subscriber-only section. In the video, a gentleman named Simon Sinek was on, talking about millenials and how they were dealt a bad hand growing up.
Without explaining the entire article, I will focus on one portion of it where Simon speaks about cell phones and the crazy dopamine rush it creates when we receive a text or a notification on social media. He says it's like an addiction such as drinking or smoking, except it's accessible 24/7.
When you get a text, it feels good. -Simon
Simon mentioned that the problem is we are checking our phones before we start interacting with the people who are sitting next to us. We will turn to our phones before we open up a dialogue with someone as we wait for class at school or wait to board an airplane.
“We have age restrictions on smoking, gambling, and alcohol, but we have no restrictions on social media and cell phones.” -Simon
So the problem therein revolves around kids and young adults not learning how to form deep, meaningful relationships because they've never needed to. They would simply turn to their cell phones for that hit of dopamine over and over again, without turning to the people standing right next to them for help or support.
The other issue, as Simon points out, is that kids, or even adults, are not developing the coping mechanisms neccessary to deal with stress. So naturally, when stress comes along, they turn yet again to their cell phones and social media. Can I ask you this... Is that you as well? Do you turn to social media to deal with stress?
Getting back to the original question... Are cell phones slowly killing us? Well, as Simon puts it, cell phones have addictive qualities, especially when used in massive doses. Just like drugs, gambling, or alcohol, it's the imbalance that causes harm to arise in our lives. Too much of it can cause destruction slowly over time as depression and even suicides take over due to low self-esteem and self-confidence.
Addictions destroy not right away, but over time, slowly but surely. The other thing also, is that we don't even realize it's an addiction because, well, it's not drugs or alcohol after all, right? Reality check... it is like a drug because we keep coming back to it for that hit of dopamine that feels so good every time it's released.
To conclude... Are cell phones inherently bad or evil? No, I don't believe that. But, we must be careful when and how often we use them. As Simon states, if you are checking your phone in the morning before you say hi to your significant other, you have an addiction.
Become a Coil subscriber to not only view the solution Simon provides to the addiction, and also to hear about how watching the video drastically changed my perspective and daily actions.
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