Cell phone addiction



By: Brad Tripp

Walking down the street next to your buddy, you text your him “stop sign.” He curiously questions your text as you watch him literally walk straight into a stop sign. While staring at your phone, you too run into a stop sign on the other side of the road. Both of you are laughing from seeing each other smacking the stop sign with your head. Would this ever happen to anyone not staring a phone? As of 2013, Pew Research says that 91% of Americans own a smart phone.

 Now, think about this: has there ever been a day where you don’t check your phone?

Americans are addicted to the cell phones. This has been a growing problem and is occurring everywhere.  According to an article called “The Evolution of the Cell Phone,” mobile web on a cell phone was introduced in the 1990’s and has been growing with faster speeds, color screens and better reception ever since. With this speed came growing and new websites that allow people to contact others faster and while on the go. This can sometimes lead to an overabundance of folks walking with their head down, staring at their phone.

 According to the website Socialmedia.com, in 1998, the first forms of social media were introduced into mobile phones and computers. These forms included instant messaging and blogging. The Huffington Post newspaper shows that over the last five years the time spent on our phones has grown. In 2010, the average time spent was about three hours a day, to almost five and a day in 2013. Do you know anyone who spends tons of time on his or her phone rather than outside, or doing something more productive?  Maybe you? Well, just think what could have been done in those three to five hours daily.

Is social media the one to blame for addiction to cell phones or are we? Our addictions are our problems and no one else’s. This is because we are human and make our own decisions. No one programs us to make us get on and website or even the internet, so how can we blame someone else for our own problems? Social media isn’t the issue when it comes to addiction. Without us there’d be no social media. Social media wouldn’t even exist if people didn’t use it.

How can this be solved? Addiction is not something solved easily, especially if the person is unwilling to participate. One way to help shake an addiction to your phone is to find people to interact with face to face, read up on things you’re interested in, and/or find a new (or old) hobby. Another way to overcome a cell addiction, according to psychcentral.com, is to track your usage and to wean yourself slowly from it.

All in all, phones are a big part of our lives, but they aren’t our whole lives. So check yourself and ask: Am I addicted?