Story by: Aaliyah Valenzuela, Staff Writer
If you have gone out in any public setting, chances are that you have seen people on their phones. Nowadays most people rely on their phones for a handful of reasons like communication, weather, and the news. However, on top of those reasons most people use their phones for social media.
Many would agree that most of the population has a connection to their devices and could not go without them. If you are walking around without some kind of cellular device, nowadays you are in the minority of every generation. As years go on newer generations are growing more dependent on technology, as it is all that they have known. You often see parents leaving their children to their screens in order to entertain them because it is “easier” than other activities. This in turn can introduce them to different social media, of which are targeted mostly to younger generations and are made to be extremely addictive.
Things like endless scrolling applications with videos just a few seconds long have affected the dopamine receptors of anyone who has caught themselves scrolling through without taking a break. Continued use of these platforms can alter the way someone takes in information and limit the way someone thinks because of the short-lived, easily accessible, entertainment that they can consume at any point in time with no cost to them, other than their time. This can be very harmful in the long run, as it has the ability to affect someone's emotions and behavior just like any other addiction.
Losing time is something that is overlooked by people who slowly become addicted to their screens and the more that they develop a routine of using social media as an escape from whatever is going on in their lives, the more that social media becomes a necessity to them and something that will take up free time they could be spending doing more productive activities.
There is no real cure for being addicted to your phone, but there are many things that can be done to limit how much time you spend on it. Some of these limiters include certain apps or timers that can lock social media, or other distracting things on your device, after an extended amount of use. Other options include putting your focus on physical forms of entertainment, like board games and reading, or deleting these addictive apps all together. Starting to limit the time you spend on your phone may be hard, but it is possible.
If you feel like you spend too much time on your device, you may be a phone addict and you should definitely consider new alternatives because they may just boost your mood and save you time for less harmful activities.
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