A look into our lives and cellphone use.

By now, its quite obvious that our phone has become a staple to our daily livelihoods. Many would much rather lose their car keys or purse over their phone, and at first glance this would obviously seem like its because it serves as their main communicator between them and their loved ones, but in reality the truth is a lot more sinister. The dopamine created by our device usage makes it simply inescapable from the grasp of advertational pull that they create for each personal user. When 80% of the population uses their phone within the first 15 minutes of their morning, its hard to argue that they haven't become part of our daily routine. What could one have missed for the 8 hours they were disconnected from the world? We're not sure. but we are determined to find out. 

https://investorplace.com/2020/08/the-screen-time-surge-may-not-be-healthy-but-it-is-producing-profits/

After viewing the graph, although it only reaches 2018 it's hard to assume that the bar has gone down. With the presentation of COVID-19 into our daily lives, screen time has risen to at least 5 hours and as we transfer slowly into our common way of life, one may notice an urge that may have not been there as often as it was now. What's happening on Snapchat? Your middle school friend got into relationship? The 'best friend' that stabbed you in the back is posting about the importance of loyalty? Although no previous care may have been placed on our phones, the more personalized and improved feedback we get from these notifications, the more it makes it harder for one to stay away from their device and one may not think much of this to consider it as an issue but consider the following:

    -The average American uses their cell phone for 5.4 hours daily 

    -This averages out to approx. 30 hours of social media use weekly

        -It takes 20 hours to learn a skill

            - 45 Minutes a day for a month is enough to go from not knowing anything to being "Pretty good"

If the Average American used half of their time on social media attempting to learn something new, they could achieve a skill in a matter of 2 weeks. This is why many of us find it a challenge to let go of our device, but many social researchers are trying to find methods to get us to look away from our screen such as deleting apps, not looking at it while in motion or simply looking at life in a different light. Although the appreciation towards these authors is due for their attempt to get us away from our phones the truth is, just like any addiction, it just makes us crave our phone even more when we don't find the sweet, sweet release of dopamine from attempting at drawing the previous room one was in. 

https://www.le-hom.art/portfolio/big-brother-is-watching-you    

Although many students place tape on their laptop to "not allow their FBI agent to look at them", using their device in general for any social connection is a hypocritical move from a privacy perspective since any data used can be tracked, measured, watched, monitored, and recorded. Whether we like it or not, privacy is at a all time low and that feeling of constantly feeling watched isn't unwarranted. Prior to our generation, technology was seen as some evil thing that was bound to betray the human race, kill everyone or as something that would forever revolutionize society due to its simplistic nature. 

Well both were not wrong to say the least, but the true enemy with this tool is oneself. Social Media pages don't come with warning labels on the direct effects of social media on the conscious mind but as time goes on and data can be formulated we will serve as the Lab Rats who depended on technology, but at the same time we could also continue to fall towards the progressive nature of technology, which could ironically result in the detriment of the strands our personal and social culture. 

https://medium.com/dayone-a-new-perspective/how-smartphones-came-to-rule-us-all-1480e90afb24

We are at a stage in society in which we have so many different influencers to the point that our free will seems to be more controlled than we can imagine. The argument of how ethical are to some of the users often lands on people who don't know how cookies and algorithms. The truth is that many of us believe we choose to view our media and although we do command our cellular device to do specific things, it's those little widgets that take you for a ride that will probably plague you for the rest of your life (unless there's some sort of mutual assured destruction to save you).