Wake up and smell the roses… or at least look up from your mobile phone. Recent research has found that young adults spend, on average, five hours a day looking at their mobile phones. The amount of people considered to be clinically addicted is surging rapidly. You can do the math. People are spending several days of their fleeting, sweet existences on this Earth gazing into the Black Mirror (and I don’t mean the one on Netflix which is, of course, worthy of such dedication). 

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This new dependency on technology has graver ramifications than social media crazed millennials walking into lamp posts. The use of social media has been linked directly with isolation and depression. Smartphones, used by an estimated two billion people, provide, among a myriad of distractions, constant access to social media. Isolation is an epidemic that has taken Europe by storm, so much so that British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a ‘Minister of Loneliness’ earlier this year. There are talks among various other European Governments considering following suit.

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The American Journal of Preventive Medicine published a study which found that those who spend two or more hours a day on social media are twice as likely to experience social isolation than those who spend around half an hour. More startlingly, the research provided that people who use social media sites nearly a dozen times per day are three times more likely to experience social isolation than those who visit the sites one or two times a day. The correlation is apparent, yet people feel more compelled to hunch over palm sized chunks of mixed metals than have meaningful encounters. 

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Not only are our mobiles detrimental to our meaningful relationships, if you manage to develop one whilst the battery’s out, they vastly affect how we experience and interact with the world around us. No doubt you have witnessed an elated selfie grin disappear the moment after or encountered swarms of tourists taking in their new environment through a lens? Phones and cameras often drain the colour from our experiences, before you apply the filter of course. All so we can share them in the hope of brief gratification. 

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It is a challenge to survive, and thrive, in our modern neoliberal habitat without spending copious amounts of time attached to an electronic device. A mobile is an essential tool to uphold most forms of employment, to maintain our relationships from afar, to advance intellectually. These are merely a few of the infinite ways in which technology is interwoven into our lives. At present I am writing this article on my shiny MacBook, created by one of the most condemnable culprits. It is essential for us to use these miraculous new technologies to enhance our experiences, not to shroud them.

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“Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.”

A wise Chinese proverb. Anon.

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By Nicole Watson