How cell phones are killing us!
By: Shalvika Alice
Tags: Startup, Mental Health, Blog For Change, Life Lessons, Covid-19

It was a regular day, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning went for a run and came back, had my breakfast, shower and studies.

Early morning sipping coffee on the balcony, pleasant morning sun rays showering me with positivity and enthusiasm for the day.

The streets were a little noisy, people started going to the works. In India, we have a garbage man to pick up the trash from the residents daily. Like every other day, he came and picked up the trash from the bin.

I asked him why he didn’t come past two days to pick up the garbage.

First, he asked for the water which gave him immediately and said “ Mam, my son has passed away. a day before yesterday. That’s why. “ and worse is he committed suicide!

My immediate reaction was “ why”!

And guess the reason. The stupidest reason one could ever imagine. “ his phone was broken down and he’s wishing for a new phone from his father to play games!!!!

I consolidated him, I don’t know how to do that, most of the time in uncomfortable not knowing how should I react or what should I say. I was more sceptical rather than grieving.

But somehow I tried my best.

It leaves a huge question mark on my mind.

We are so deprived of this culture aka routine, what, why, how dozen of’em.

I, myself try not to so dependent on mobile devices, the Internet, social media.

The addictive algorithm of this software might create profit for the business companies but somewhere it’s affecting our lives negatively.

Millennials, Gen z nobody knows how to deal with this trap.

I tried some experiments on myself.

1. I used my phone with a screen time of 11+ hours.

Result: headache, disturbed sleeping routine, dark circles, over-eating/ less eating varies from person to person.

I also see the difference in changing my moods, I’ve become moodier not listening to others and this behaviour I also noticed in my siblings when they spent hours on their respective devices.

And this has become routine since the pandemic hits humankind. We’ve been miserable, depressed, anxious and many people lost their friends, family time has been hard on all of us.

But what I’ve noticed is using phones making us either numb in emotions or worsened them. If you’re sad about something and during that self-analysing time you switched to your phone, checking out posts on social media. Whoosh!! Thought gone.

Which is good and terrible, both. I know memes help us to laugh, humour sharing with friends “socialising”. But it hardly took off, the temporary solution damaged the situation and without any idea, you have become a patient of ADHD.

“ We are the sad generation of happy photographs”

*quoted well*

Ugly truth!

What is ADHD?

A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity and impulsiveness.

ADHD often begins in childhood and can persist into adulthood. It may contribute to low self-esteem, troubled relationships and difficulty at school or work.

Symptoms: Behavioural: aggression, excitability, fidgeting, hyperactivity, impulsivity, irritability, lack of restraint, or persistent repetition of words or actions.

Cognitive: absent-mindedness, difficulty focusing, forgetfulness, problem paying attention, or short attention span.

Mood: anger, anxiety, boredom, excitement, or mood swings

Also common: depression or learning disability

What is the solution?

I don’t know but I have analysed few things…

1. I deactivate my social accounts periodically.

2. Take a month or a week break from social media.

3. Mute the unwanted notifications and groups which sucks your energy unnecessarily.

4. Uninstalled the apps which you don’t find valuable.

5. Try to consume your time by doing something productive like reading, writing, painting…..

6. Best of all listen to music. One of the beautiful escapes and try exploring new genres in it.

7. Spend your time with family, friends, pets whomever you are comfortable with, workout, play games, board games.

8. Engage yourself in social works helping the needy, feeding the poor connect yourself with NGOs.

I know it all sounds so committed but you need to start, just like you start the addictive habit of using your phone. Life is very long yet short, the view is bigger than the 12-inch screen of yours, need to lookup.

Afterword:

I liked how things were before the unlimited offers of data packages.

every time I wrote my piece of writing in a diary whenever I m sad or something good happened in my life, but now, I scrolled my emotions down with the feed of social media. I don’t want this! I like to challenge myself in a good way. You need to preserve yourself, you’re precious. Don’t let the world norms defining your way of living. Technology is created to save time for humans not to waste precious moments of our life.

I guess your life is far more valuable than some piece of processed piece of silica trash. Never compare yourself to what sells on social media nor to a stupid game.

Games are supposed to be played by us not we played by games.

Apps are for using them, then uninstall them when not used. Enjoy the diversity don’t, features, learn for better, grow for better, take your time, there is no deadline to learn something new or start something again.

“Many people who have progressively lowered their standards in an attempt to win social acceptance and life’s comforts bitterly resent those of philosophical bent who refuse to compromise their spiritual ideals and who seek to better themselves.”

I hope nobody ever commits suicide or something like this. I know Life is pain full and hard but “what doesn’t kills you makes you stronger”.