Addicted To Gadgets
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
Even so, I am not technology averse. I have a smart phone and I know how to use it.
I have a couple of websites. I know my way around the Internet and I can troubleshoot Mac networks – a little bit anyway.
But I stumbled across a story in the Daily Mail online by Victoria Woollaston that was pretty telling about the world of technology today.
She reported on a recent study that showed a good number of us are quite literally addicted to technology.
The study – conducted by FrontRange, a software company – showed that more than half of smart phone or tablet owners around the world admit to suffering from anxiety if they can’t use their devices.
Those surveyed said smart phone withdrawal was akin to a trip to the dentist or as stressful as their own wedding day.
So if you go into panic mode at the thought of being left without your smart phone, you probably are suffering from some level of technology addiction.
The study finds that:
• Half of people feel anxious when they can’t use their phone
• 45 percent said they use their phones at least once an hour
• Two thirds admitted they couldn’t go a day without their gadgets.
• 80 percent believe technology addiction exists
• And 71 percent said they knew someone who may be addicted.
This is not surprising to me.
Have you ever looked around a restaurant lately?
If you do, I can guarantee you will be able to spot at least one – and probably several – happy couples thumbing away at their smart phones while waiting for their food.
They put the thing down when the food arrives, but keep looking at it while eating, wiping their fingers occasionally with a napkin to respond to texts or surf the Internet while chewing. (Don’t want to get grease from your fries on your touch screen, do you?)
This is both men and women. The addiction knows no bounds by gender.
Sometimes, however, I get the sense that women tend to be a little more afflicted than men. But that’s probably because men generally tend to be a little more socially challenged than women.
I have actually seen tables of four, or six or even eight, where between half and 80 percent of the diners were simultaneously tapping away at their gadgets.
The whole notion of not texting and driving? That’s out the window. I’m surprised there aren’t more crashes caused by that practice because I see it happening all the time.
I was on Market Street the other day headed back from Optical One to the office, when I saw a guy texting and walking. He was headed south on McKinley Street, I believe. Maybe Cleveland. One of those president streets.
Anyway, he was just texting away and it appeared he had no idea where he was. It looked as if he was about to walk right out into traffic.
I tapped the horn when he was about 3 feet from the curb. He stopped, looked up, then looked back down and continued texting. He didn’t look startled at all, even though he was only seconds and a few steps away from severe bodily injury.
Maybe I’m exaggerating here. Maybe he had everything under control. But I can’t help but think had I not hit the horn, he would have become my hood ornament.
I’ve read plenty of stories about people walking into lamp poles, each other, or anything else that happens to get in the way as they walk and text at the same time.
And it makes me wonder.
What in the world is so important that it has to be instantaneously consumed?
It seems legions of us are on some incessant, mindless quest to ingest vast quantities of mostly meaningless drivel.
How can this not be harmful to productivity? How can this not be dumbing us down as a culture?
Already there are watches you can wear on your wrist so you never have to be too far from the digital world, even when your smart phone is in a pocket, purse or holster.
Soon there will be glasses available so you don’t even have to avert your glance to be online.
I read a story the other day that suggested infants’ and toddlers’ growth and large motor skills are being stunted because they’re spending too much time poking at tablets instead of crawling around.
Are we spawning a generation of overweight, sedentary, near-sighted people?
Ah, the insanity.
If we don’t somehow bend this trajectory, we are going to completely obliterate the ability to interact with each other as humans beings without the buffer of technology.
It won’t be long before couples are texting each other goodbye in the morning as they as they walk – side by side – out the front door to work.
But at least – by golly – they’ll know rare identical triplets were born in California, a topless victim chased a man through a department store in Kansas, and a man with a foot fetish is being sought for stalking women at a public library in Georgia.[[In-content Ad]]
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Even so, I am not technology averse. I have a smart phone and I know how to use it.
I have a couple of websites. I know my way around the Internet and I can troubleshoot Mac networks – a little bit anyway.
But I stumbled across a story in the Daily Mail online by Victoria Woollaston that was pretty telling about the world of technology today.
She reported on a recent study that showed a good number of us are quite literally addicted to technology.
The study – conducted by FrontRange, a software company – showed that more than half of smart phone or tablet owners around the world admit to suffering from anxiety if they can’t use their devices.
Those surveyed said smart phone withdrawal was akin to a trip to the dentist or as stressful as their own wedding day.
So if you go into panic mode at the thought of being left without your smart phone, you probably are suffering from some level of technology addiction.
The study finds that:
• Half of people feel anxious when they can’t use their phone
• 45 percent said they use their phones at least once an hour
• Two thirds admitted they couldn’t go a day without their gadgets.
• 80 percent believe technology addiction exists
• And 71 percent said they knew someone who may be addicted.
This is not surprising to me.
Have you ever looked around a restaurant lately?
If you do, I can guarantee you will be able to spot at least one – and probably several – happy couples thumbing away at their smart phones while waiting for their food.
They put the thing down when the food arrives, but keep looking at it while eating, wiping their fingers occasionally with a napkin to respond to texts or surf the Internet while chewing. (Don’t want to get grease from your fries on your touch screen, do you?)
This is both men and women. The addiction knows no bounds by gender.
Sometimes, however, I get the sense that women tend to be a little more afflicted than men. But that’s probably because men generally tend to be a little more socially challenged than women.
I have actually seen tables of four, or six or even eight, where between half and 80 percent of the diners were simultaneously tapping away at their gadgets.
The whole notion of not texting and driving? That’s out the window. I’m surprised there aren’t more crashes caused by that practice because I see it happening all the time.
I was on Market Street the other day headed back from Optical One to the office, when I saw a guy texting and walking. He was headed south on McKinley Street, I believe. Maybe Cleveland. One of those president streets.
Anyway, he was just texting away and it appeared he had no idea where he was. It looked as if he was about to walk right out into traffic.
I tapped the horn when he was about 3 feet from the curb. He stopped, looked up, then looked back down and continued texting. He didn’t look startled at all, even though he was only seconds and a few steps away from severe bodily injury.
Maybe I’m exaggerating here. Maybe he had everything under control. But I can’t help but think had I not hit the horn, he would have become my hood ornament.
I’ve read plenty of stories about people walking into lamp poles, each other, or anything else that happens to get in the way as they walk and text at the same time.
And it makes me wonder.
What in the world is so important that it has to be instantaneously consumed?
It seems legions of us are on some incessant, mindless quest to ingest vast quantities of mostly meaningless drivel.
How can this not be harmful to productivity? How can this not be dumbing us down as a culture?
Already there are watches you can wear on your wrist so you never have to be too far from the digital world, even when your smart phone is in a pocket, purse or holster.
Soon there will be glasses available so you don’t even have to avert your glance to be online.
I read a story the other day that suggested infants’ and toddlers’ growth and large motor skills are being stunted because they’re spending too much time poking at tablets instead of crawling around.
Are we spawning a generation of overweight, sedentary, near-sighted people?
Ah, the insanity.
If we don’t somehow bend this trajectory, we are going to completely obliterate the ability to interact with each other as humans beings without the buffer of technology.
It won’t be long before couples are texting each other goodbye in the morning as they as they walk – side by side – out the front door to work.
But at least – by golly – they’ll know rare identical triplets were born in California, a topless victim chased a man through a department store in Kansas, and a man with a foot fetish is being sought for stalking women at a public library in Georgia.[[In-content Ad]]
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