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Aziz Ergashev
Mr. Passal
ENGWR 302
29 April 2017
Con Smartphone
Smartphones are one of the most amazing inventions of the 21st century. It is a magical
device, which has helped us to be connected with all over the world. It is helping people like me
to be in touch with my family from any part of the world at any times. However, even though
modern cellphones are designed to be helpful and make our lives easy, in reality it is making us
less relaxed and more anxious. The problem is that the countless of different applications on our
smartphones, such as games, social media, video platforms and many others, are making us to be
addicted to our devices and taking up our valuable time. We already live in a fast paced and
demanding lifestyle and cellphones are making us to be attached to the screens 24/7, which is
causing a distraction for many people. This is a huge issue in the society because people are
starting to develop a psychological fear of being disconnected from their phones. According to a
2015 article on scientificamerican.com, psychologists have recently coined the term
“nomophobia” – short for no-mobile-phone phobia: the fear people experience when they do not
have access to their smartphone.
For many of us, our cellphones have become an indispensible thing and is taking up a big
portion of our lives. Not to the point to nomophobia, but I am a smartphone addict myself and
every day when I wake up, I start my day by checking my phone for new emails, messages,
social media notifications and etc. Without realizing it, before I even get out of my bed, I would
spend at least 20-30 minutes on my phone. A 2014 article on Techmark.com states that, an
average person checks his/her “phone about 221 times per day.” Meaning “We amass three hours
and 16 minutes of our time on phone usage over the course of the day.” It is huge amount of
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time, which can be spent on more productive things like, learning, going to gym or simply
socializing with other people around us because sometimes people know things that Google
cannot know.
In recent years we have become so attached to our smartphones that they have become an
accepted norm in our society, and it is no longer uncommon to see people use their smartphones
while eating in restaurants, at family gatherings, concerts, or even while driving their car. There
is no doubt that smartphones keep us entertained and connected to the world but they also serve
as one of the most common distractions in our daily lives. According to a 2015 Reuters.com
article, “The number of fatal…accidents in the United States jumped 8.1 percent [only] in the
first half of 2015.” Officials say that this is due to the smartphone distractions, which are making
