Communication is as important to society as water. It seems like a head-scratcher of a statement but when you break it down it may just be true. Without water, humans cannot exist in society. Is it any different with communication? If no one communicated with each other, this society wouldn’t function. Why is there a difference? Why is one more important? My point is that they are both imperative for survival as a society. But communication has changed. Communication and smartphones now have this major tie that many people misunderstand. Many people, especially teenagers, now think of smartphones as the main way of communication. This has turned into a problem because these smartphones are becoming addictive.
The problem with teenagers talking primarily via text message or social media on their phones is that when it comes time for a real-life conversation, they are heavily unprepared. Many teenagers fear these very conversations because they do not occur as much as they did 20 years ago for the last generation of teenagers. This is what is called social anxiety. As discussed in my essay, social anxiety is the “fear of social situations that involve interactions with other people”. This is a big problem because smartphones are now directly affecting many teenagers’ mental health negatively. Social anxiety would not have been considered a “major problem” 20 years ago. Smartphones have brought a lot of harm and made it a lot more difficult to create and maintain meaningful relationships.
In the world we live in today, people are more likely to have an addiction. One major addiction, is the dependence on their smartphones. Some signs of the dependence are as follows “lack of impulse control, use of the mobile phone to avoid unpleasant mood states, problems derived from the use of the mobile phone, abuse of the mobile phone (as shown by the number of daily calls, messages, ‘missed’ calls or ‘beeps’) and the amount of time invested daily in both calls and messages”. Smartphone use can get dangerous if it gets to this level, just like any other addiction. We need to learn to control this addiction before it gets to be too late.
When cellphones were first introduced, many people were amazed that the advances in technology had brought us to this special time. They felt that we were so lucky and that these advances would be life changing. They were not wrong. These advances were life changing. The question now becomes, did it change our lives for the good or for the bad? Without diving deep into this much bigger question, we can agree that there are a lot of positives and quite a few negatives to smartphones. With regards to communication, it is clear that smartphones have worsened communication in our current era.
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