“My smartphone is turning me into a zombie”
I recently had a terrifying revelation. I realised I was already a zombie, and I didn't even know it. None of us do, because we're too busy being held captive by the technology that was meant to set us free.
When Alexander Graham Bell patented the blower back in 1876, naysayers predicted it would destroy civilised society. They were about 150 years and 20,000 generations of device off, but now the telephone's bastard cousin, the smartphone, is turning us all into red-eyed dullards.
Zombies are everywhere. They're at the park with their kids, glancing up occasionally to offer a weak grunt of encouragement (after they've Instagrammed and Facebook-lived "Saturday's super-fun park trip! #allthelols #lovethislittleguy").
They're at the bus stop, lurching angrily behind the bus after it drove past because no-one looked up to wave it down. Some of them were probably at the table with you at lunch, staring vacantly at the object in their palms, replying stupidly to your half-heard conversation.
The other day I stopped to answer a text on the steps at Auckland Art Gallery. I usually would not think twice before stopping on the street to check my phone. But this time I got an eerie feeling. I glanced up to see two people to either side of me, and one a couple of metres in front, standing stock-still. We were heads-down, mid-step, frozen. We had hit pause on real life.
Sometimes, I'm at my computer on my email and I will click on the Gmail icon on my smartphone to check the mail I'm already reading. I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket when it's not ringing. I check it then I want to check it again almost immediately. I try not to use it in front of my toddler, but it is hard. And compared to my friends, my smartphone usage is not abnormal. It's probably bordering on low.
Studies on smartphone usage have found addiction is linked to depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and stress. Some signs of addictive behaviour are: "uncontrollable use, in addition to feelings of intense desire or irresistible need, loss of control, inattention to usual activities, the focalisation of interests on the behaviour or activity of interest, the persistence of the behaviour despite its negative effects, and the irritability and malaise associated with abstinence."
There's no real data on how common addiction is, because the field of study is so new.
But it's pretty obvious, right? Just look around.
This week I deleted the Facebook and Twitter apps from my smartphone. I've started bringing a book on the bus. I'm considering making a deliberate switch back to a regular cell phone.
I want my kid to know me, not some diluted version.
And if some zombies come at me, I'll need my hands free to save him.
Written by Michelle Duff. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.