We are becoming increasingly occupied with constantly checking our smartphones. Recent studies have shown that we check our phones 221 times every day, a number that continues to rise. The temptation to check our phone as much as we do is understandable. Technology has progressed to the point where we now have all of human knowledge in our pockets. What makes this astounding is that this has happened in a relatively short period of time. The first touchscreen mobile phones were released just over ten years ago. Within five years, phones had reached an adoption rate of 50%, with 70% of those who had bought one saying it made them feel “free”.
However, it can be argued that this communication revolution has led to a downgrading of the quality of human relationships with people constantly being distracted. Although they haven’t been around long enough to allow an extensive longitudinal study, there has already been evidence of the adverse effects of mobile phones on adolescent development. Rates of anxiety, suicide, and depression in society have risen in conjunction with increasing rates of social media usage. Although correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation, the issue of whether or not devices really make people “free” or bring happiness warrants further investigation.
Furthermore, the culture of being “always on” has been found to be closely correlated to young people’s lack of ability to empathize with their peers. The studies that have been carried out have found that in extreme cases, adolescents are displaying signs of being on the Asperger’s spectrum. Some symptoms of this include not being able to maintain eye contact with people and a lack of ability to form friendships as a result of not being able to engage and interact.
The Art of Friendship
Friendship has now become the art of dividing your attention successfully. This is enabled by “friendship” technologies such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram to name a few. The tendency to create digital personas gives people a chance to rehearse everything they post and share just the right amount of themselves. Not only does this lack authenticity, it is a far cry from the real world of human face-to-face interactions where tailormade and rehearsed responses aren’t feasible or practical. Furthermore, the discourse taking place online is becoming increasingly narcissistic and corrosive, with the ubiquity of anonymous comments on posts across the internet meaning that cyber bullies and online “trolls” feel they have a license to insult whoever they see fit.
Addiction As A Commercial Strategy
A commonality of successful mobile apps is that they all have a distinctive and repetitive hand motion. On Facebook and Twitter, it’s flicking down the screen to refresh your timeline. On Instagram, it’s a double tap to like a friend’s photo. On Tinder, it’s a swipe to the left or right. On Snapchat, it’s holding down your finger to open a photo or a video.
When the software is being built, engineers consider both applied psychology and behavioural economics to ensure that they maximize the likelihood of users becoming addicted. This is known as captology, which studies the use of computers as persuasive technology. The valuation of apps is based on how much time consumers spend on it, meaning that the creation of a persistent routine for a user is crucial to the success of the app. Studies have found that when someone checks in to Facebook, it triggers a release of dopamine (one of the chemicals associated with happiness) in their brain.
This can also be seen in the case of Instagram, which Facebook acquired in 2012 for a fee in the region of $1 billion. When asked about their use of Instagram, people surveyed reported that they had a “fear of losing a special moment” by not putting it online. How special was that moment really though? What social media really does is weaponizes and encourages blandness as users feel growing pressure on themselves to produce some sort of output. This plays into the running joke amongst young people where if something happened but it wasn’t put on Instagram, did it really happen at all?
Tech companies have now begun to engage in a “race to the bottom of the brain stem”, as they look to maximize the utility of their apps. As adoption rates increase and technology becomes ubiquitous in everyday life, there should be an increased emphasis on engineers of these apps to consider the idea of “time well spent” as opposed to encouraging unhealthy usage and addiction to mobile phones.
Thankfully, there are a growing number of apps which help control usage of other apps. The most prominent of these is Moment. Moment enables the user to track their phone and app usage automatically and instructs you on ways by which you can use your phone less. It allows you to adjust the settings whereby you receive a reminder once you’ve gone over your daily limit on your phone. If you want to take it one step further, you can set it up where you’ll be forced off your phone once you exceed your time limit. Although apps like Moment have nowhere near the traction than the apps they’re actively looking to reduce usage of, there are undoubtedly people out there who have become too comfortable receiving artificial stimuli as a result of being constantly plugged in. Moving forward young people, in particular, should actively try and engage with their peers in face-to-face settings or set aside times during the day when they can “plug out.”
Follow the link below to learn more about Moment and how you can download it.
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