A lot of teenagers nowadays would definitely be surprised to find out that 15 to 20 years ago, people were using mobile phones pretty much only for simple text messages and calls. Back in those glorious days, there was no trace of social media and smartphones.
The modern smartphone became popular along with the release of the very first iPhone back in 2007. That was 17 years ago, and as for today, you either have a smartphone and social media accounts, or you don’t exist in the eyes of the majority.
But guess what? The simple fact that we love our smartphones doesn’t also mean that they are always useful. Surely, we’re not here to deny the overwhelming advantages that a smartphone can have in the life of a person, but it’s the way we’re using it that could make it bad for us. If you find yourself constantly scrolling through social media and neglecting the real world or have trouble connecting with other people in real life, that’s where the problem begins.
The feature phones revolution: when did it start?
In the last couple of years, more and more young people understood the potential downsides that their smartphones have for their mental health. It is now a growing trend in several places of the world to NOT use a smartphone and instead rely on a good ol’ feature phone (aka dumb phone). Yes, you’ve read that correctly: more and more young people ditch their smartphones and prefer to grab a feature phone instead, one that has a lot of physical buttons, no social media apps, and no ways to constantly grab your attention.
The attention span of the public has gone down a lot
Smartphones seem to affect the memory and mental well-being of many of us as long as we’re addicted to them. Scrolling through social media posts all day creates an unhealthy flux of dopamine levels in the brain, meaning the hormone responsible for the reward system. Having fake dopamine levels due to the addiction to a virtual realm instead of the “real deal,” such as real-life dopamine hits, can cause some problems for our mental health.
One study from the Technical University of Denmark shows that the collective global attention span is shrinking because of the amount of information we’re exposed to. In other words, you can’t have a too high attention span if you’re constantly bombarded with information. Guess what? That’s what smartphones are designed to do: get your attention as much as possible.
The addiction of social media
Only about 15 years ago, society was doing great even without social apps such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and so on. Life without being ‘social’ was better, as we had a lot more interest in real-life human connections than we have today.
Social media can be very addictive, and a lot of young people struggle with such a form of addiction. It’s definitely not healthy for your brain to stay too much on social media apps, and more and more young people seem to understand that nowadays, which is another strong reason why they choose to ditch their smartphones and simply opt for a feature phone.
People were also a lot happier and more honest without social media, and it’s great to see that ‘social’ apps are less popular than they once were. There was no room for uploading dozens of photos of yourself that were edited numerous times in order to hide the flaws.
Smartphones are amazing gadgets, but that doesn’t mean that they are useful all the time. Moderation is key to pretty much anything in life, and this simple principle even applies to our use of technology. In a similar way, people who have a lot of money are not automatically evil – it’s the way they use all that money that counts.
Tim M. Hill helped bring Digital-Overload from a weekly newsletter to a full-fledged news site by creating a new website and branding. He continues to assist in keeping the site responsive and well organized for the readers. As a writer to Digital-Overload, Tim mainly covers mobile news and gadgets.
