By: Dalal Al Ramadhan
According to The Dailymail newspaper, about 10 percent of the smartphone users touch their phones 5,427 times a day ; 2 million times a year .
Take a random glance at everyone walking on the streets , sitting at cafes or restaurants , in buses or even at hospital halls , you would almost note that they are all glued to shiny screens .
No one could deny that we love our smartphones so much that we never want to put them down. but, what to do if that affection turned into an obsession?
Nowadays, smartphones have become part and parcel of everybody’s life .
Leaving your home without your mobile is like forgetting your ID card or purse or even going out without your shoes on .
Smartphones make our life much more convenient and easy due to their ability to do many tasks .
They are all-in-one devices: You can communicate with friends, family, and co-workers , send messages, receive and reply to emails as well as taking photos and editing documents .
There are many entertainment applications and games which are our perfect choice to spend our free time on, let alone educational applications that can be very useful for students or employers .
There are even apps that help you learn foreign languages on the go .
Now your phone is also an ebook reader, currency converter and GPS tracker. The invention of smart phone is really astonishing but , what about our safety , health and social life?
Even though it is illegal in Kuwait to use the mobile while driving , many studies have shown that one of the main causes of traffic accidents is using mobiles while driving; there are hundreds of deaths and injuries because of distractions by mobile while driving.
The excessive use of smartphones also leads to hazardous health problems.
Many users of smartphones admit that they sleep with their phones turned on under their pillows or next to their beds which , in turn , may be the main cause of insomnia and could deteriorate their concentration and affect their mental health in the long run.
Excessive use of smartphones may also cause eye strain and dryness as well as social isolation as many believe that our younger generation is actually less capable of normal socializing because of this. They’re simply not comfortable with chatting with someone they meet out in public.
Since humans are social creatures by nature who need real life connections, this runs the risk of becoming a huge problem for society.
In conclusion, mobile phones have both pros and cons to our society. They are very convenient to our lives. But, I believe that we must use them in a well-advised manner because their impact is so bad on our health, time and communication.