Are smartphones making people dumb?

If you are in a public place and stop whatever you are doing right now for a moment and take a look around, you will notice that most of the people in that room have a smartphone in their hands or near them.

Since early 2010s, the smartphones have become tremendously popular since they offered features that were never seen before with the cell phones, such as internet access, camera and apps. In other words, since their existence, they have simplified our lives by making everything reachable through a simple touch. For many of us, our smartphones are the very first thing that we look at when we wake up in the morning and the last thing we see right before we go to bed.

Hence, while we are in a park or sitting in the comfort of our living room, we can meet people from different cultures who live on the other side of the world, or keep in touch with family members and friends that might live far away from us. Moreover, we can express ourselves and post whenever we want to on social media or use it for entertainment, as well. The options are limitless.

Nevertheless, there are a few disadvantages involved with smartphone usage. According to researchers, its overuse decreases our cognitive capacity and increases levels of anxiety. This situation makes people feel tired and unwilling to do their daily activities. In addition to this, the dependency caused by smartphones has made difficult for many people to be able to perform basic tasks or to solve a simple problem without using them. Excessive usage of smartphones has even led people to forget things and ultimately increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other type of dementias in their adulthood. In North America, research was found that one of the main reasons for mental illness is the excessive use of social media and smartphones by children and teenagers.  Not to mention the electromagnetic radiation that might lead to health issues such as brain tumor and/or skin cancer.

Tech addiction is real and learning how to better manage our screen time has become a must, nowadays. We must learn to use them wisely and to take advantage of their countless benefits. At the end of the day, what we ultimately want is to improve our lives, not to deteriorate our brains.