Smartphones Making Us Dumb

The use of smartphones and electronic devices has really placed a dent on the overall
progression of our society. It used to be that on social gatherings people would attend to do just
that, Socialize. But now with social media readily available in the palm of our hands, it just
keeps getting harder and harder for one to actually socialize with others. We as a society must act
upon such issue because it seems to be that instead of coming together and being united we
instead are drifting apart and I blame the smartphone and social media industry.
According to a study
conducted by the Pew Research
Center, over half of U.S. adults
56% to be exactnow own a
smartphone. And According to
an IDC Research report, 18 to
44 year olds who own
smartphones spend in excess of
two hours a day communicating with people via messaging or social media on their phones. That
figure to me seems somewhat outdated at the time, meaning that I feel like that the number of
hours spent communicating via messaging on a smartphone is higher. Why are we so glued to
our cellphones? Why has it evolved from being a tool that helped us communicate to now being
such a huge necessity?
The use of smartphones has been adopted universally and that is scary. A child of age 2
resides in my childhood and believe it or not she owns an iPhone, I mean isnt that scary? How is
it possible that children that young carry around an electronic device? A study done by the

Kaiser Foundation states that the use of handheld devices causes many issues on the
development on a child, such issues include attention deficit, cognitive delays, impaired learning
and decreased ability to self-regulate, e.g. tantrums. An article written by Chris Rowan in the
Huffington Post provides a nice graph showing the adequate amount of time children should be
allowed to use handheld devices. I am an advocate for the regulation of the time that a child
spends on handheld devices.

All social media thats available to the public has been labeled wrongly in my opinion.
Instead of socializing in such media, we are just distancing ourselves from one another. I recall
when I was growing up that the amount of friends that one would have was quite a few and then
the smartphone showed up and that seemed to have changed. Communication between human
beings is being done more and more through an electronic device that it allows us to stay in our
comfort zone since using an electronic device to communicate doesnt require there to be a face
to face interaction. That in itself prevents us from developing crucial social skills needed for
career advancement but most importantly for self-development.
The number of smartphone users is mind-blowing. According to the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 2014 there was 7.3 billion active cellphones. In other words
theres more in-use cellphones than there is people on the planet right now. That sort of number
is mind-blowing, our dependence on smartphones needs to stop. I believe that there should be
more programs implemented in social gatherings where the use of cellphones are frowned upon,

a good example would be restaurants initiatives to clamp down on cellphone use. According to
laist.com, Eva (a LA restaurant) started an incentive initiative in august of 2012 that gives
patrons 5% off their final check if they leave their cellphone with the receptionist at the arrival to
the restaurant, such effort is being done to bring back the social dining experience.
I truly hope that there will come a time when we all realize the damage that the
smartphone is doing to our society, and hopefully this comes at a time when something can still
be done about it. So please lets all disconnect electronically and connect on a social level.

References
Coie, J. D., Dodge, K. A., and Coppotelli, H. (1982). Dimensions and types of social
status: A cross-age perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 557-570.

Nolen, Betsy (July 18, 2013) A Culture of Smartphone Dependence South University
https://www.southuniversity.edu/WhoWeAre/Newsroom/Blog/A-Culture-of-SmartphoneObsession

Pramis, Joshua (February 28, 2013) Number of Mobile Phones to Exceed World
Population by 2014
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/

Rowan, Chris (March 06, 2014) 10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned
For Children under the Age of 12) The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-bebanned_b_4899218.html

Simmons, Krista (January 30, 2013) local Restaurants Put the Clamp on Cell Phone Use
at The Table
http://laist.com/2013/01/30/local_restaurants_put_the_clamp_on.php