Cellphone addictions

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Cellphone Addictions
The 21st century has seen tremendous changes in the communications industry. Phones have evolved from feature phones to fully equipped computers on the palm. Smartphones are smart as the name suggest for they cannot be compared to their predecessors, the feature phones. People affected most by smartphones are the youths. If a youth is not surfing the internet, they are taking ‘selfies’ that are later to be posted onto the several social platforms that exist. The youths are the most affected and adults of below 35 years. Cell phone addiction is slowly becoming a menace at work, school and at home; the effects of phone addiction are serious. Cell phone addiction is the careless and aimless use of a cell phone with no expected outcome.
Several accidents since the beginning of the 21st century have been attributed to the use of phones while driving. Life and property get lost when accidents occur as a result of driving while on the phone. Jurisdictions have undertaken to pass laws that bar drivers from using phones while driving but still drivers find new ways of subverting government directives. The ripple effect that accidents cause to the community is far-reaching.
Young persons are known to be fond of playing games on their smartphones. What drives the notch of game playing higher is the presence of online games where people can play for gain. Internet service providers have over the past decade slashed internet access prices by more than half.

Cheap internet access encourages online game playing. A person spends more hours on the phone neglecting other parts of their social life like exercising. People spend most of their time before phones thus becoming obese with time.
Some people go to bed in the night but end up sleeping late thus disturbing the sleep pattern of a human being. Phones produce blue light which has been studied extensively where the blue light has been cited to interfere with the sleeping cycle of humans. People may end up suffering from lack of sleep when they try sleeping earlier away from their phones. Insomnia is common among heavy phone users who often go to bed using phones.
The society is slowly developing into a place where each person minds their own business. Seeing antisocial characters at school, work and other social places that people meet is a common sight in this century. People are seen engaged to their smartphones not attending to persons around them. When phone engagement gets to the extreme, relationships break down as parties to such union get bored of each other if engaged to their phones often.
College going students get difficulties listening to lecturers if they are phone addicts. Phones have interfered with the ideal communication environment that existed in the past. When going to meetings, one will be shocked at how many people are taking pictures of the speaker at the event while missing much of the talk. Smartphone use in class interferes with a student’s listening thus many of the students that are phone addicts score poor grades.
Communication through short messages via the many social networks had made phone users lose respect to other persons while portraying self-centeredness. When one sends a message with a language that needs decoding to a person who is a stranger to such text; what the receiver assumes is that there is disrespect or presence of egocentric traits on the part of the sender of the message. Communication can get broken down through short messages as the receiver may choose to reply or ignore.
Despite the negative effects of excessive phone usage outlined above, phone users are on the rise and the number of hours spent before the computer are increasing each year. Phone manufacturers are in the race to outdo each other by producing phones with state of the art features each year. Phone manufacturers are ever producing flagship phones that seem to have something new than the predecessors. Heavy marketing of smartphones promotes the continued buying of phones in addition to the features that the phones possess.
Each year application developers come up with applications aimed at making life simple. Smartphones are becoming accessories that can be used in each and every environment; some phones have the capability to record the heart rate of the phone user. Ticket bookings can be made from the comfort of someone’s home thus no more. The internet of things makes the smartphone a must-have gadget. Some apps control the security systems at home, the television and the nanny and spy cameras in the house.
Internet providers have continuously slashed the cost of accessing the internet and provided attractive packages for smartphone users. Affordable internet access leads to more time being spent before the smartphone. Easiness of access to information via smartphones contributes to excessive phone usage despite the repercussions. All factors that have contributed to the continued overuse of phones are at times borrowed by youths from their parents and guardians. When a parent spends most of their free time engaged to their phones, the children are pushed to get themselves company; the company sought at many time is that of a smartphone.
Phone addiction is not a lost fight as there are solutions to curb the societal vice. Parents should be there for their children as disengagement of parents from their children pushes the kids to some acts that are inclusive of phone addiction. Proper parenting will help reduce the number of young individuals that get themselves addicted to phones. Giving direction on what amount of data should be used accessing the internet per month gives the children a reason to use their phones on social media sparingly.
Educating of the society over the dangers of phone addiction can help reduce the number of phone addicts. Many people are phone addicts, and they do not know they are addicted. Getting an education to the masses will awaken many innocent souls from the danger they are facing if they continue in their current lane of life. Education should be focused on getting to the light the economic, social and economic dangers of phone addiction.
When educating people about phone addiction, the educator should not give all the solutions for that will leave out the important role the community plays in the development of individuals. The community has the power to shun habits they deem awkward according to society when the community gets to know the pitfalls of phone addiction, many members of such community will engage in acts that discourage phone addiction. No person would wish to be the odd one out; thus society equipped with the requisite knowledge will help reduce the number of smartphone addicts.
On another level, the government can typically help restore among phone users by the formulation of policies. For example, it should be illegal for teenagers to own smartphones before a prescribed age; they may be allowed to own feature phones. Stiff penalties at the workplace for people who use phones while at work should be doubled, and every employer should be made to have policies that discourage phone usage at work.