February 25, 2016 - Written by: Poppy Gillian

Smartphone Addiction

The days before the smartphone; it’s all become a bit hazy now. I can barely remember a time when my phone was not within touching distance.

In the college where I work, the rules about phones are a bit ambiguous. Students should have their phones away unless a teacher asks them to use them.

There are so many apps that can make learning in the classroom fun such as Padlet and Socrative Student; you can even make your own QR codes. However there is a very fine line between students using and abusing the privilege of being able to use their hand held device in the classroom.

I remember having a Nokia 3310 where the most interesting things you could do on it was play a game of snake. I used to put £10 pounds worth of credit on by buying a voucher and it would last me about a month.

To speak to my friends I would either call them on the landline or go on MSN which would take an eternity to load up because of the dial-up router (and then my mum would tell me to get off because she needed to use the phone).

(Image via)

Smart Phones have made everything so accessible. Now if I want to know anything, I can just ask Google. I can check what the weather will be like, buy a lottery ticket and browse through my emails. All of those things make my Smartphone a necessity. I have only once forgotten to take my phone to work and it made me feel as though I had lost an arm, even though I only really use it when I’m on my lunch break.

But the flip side of this is that it’s not nice to go into a restaurant and see a family sitting round a table and all staring at screens.

I’m guilty of checking my texts when I probably shouldn’t but I make an effort to keep my phone away when I’m with my friends. I’ve noticed that teenagers are particularly addicted to the phones and do not think it’s rude to take a call when they are mid-conversation with you, or reply to a text message when they are meant to be getting on with a task.

(Image via)

I’ve realised that Smartphones are a blessing and a curse and I don’t want the world to pass me by whilst I am staring at a screen. A text conversation is not the same as a face-to-face catch up and turning to google for answers won’t always give the best result. I am going to try to go phone-free for a couple of hours a day, so I can look at the world with my own eyes and not just through a lens.

If you enjoyed this post, why not check out ‘About to CRACK? Stop and Ask Yourself These 4 Questions’?