Your Best Friend Is Ruining You. Kelly Esposito

Welcome to a world where out of seven billion people, four and a half billion possess access to a working toilet, but six billion possess a smartphone.

Anxiety-ridden people impatiently awaiting a response to an important email they just sent. Fidgety humans compulsively checking their latest Instagram post to view how many likes they’ve gotten, frustrated when they see they’ve only garnered twenty five. Jittery folks sweating bullets after they’ve texted their friend, because thirty minutes have passed and they haven’t received a response. Welcome to a world where out of seven billion people, four and a half billion possess access to a working toilet, but six billion possess a smartphone. Indescribably, many people in the world see social media and smartphones as a necessity, but in a world where almost two billion people are on some type of social platform, it can be challenging to recognize the downsides of technology. Phones and medias are changing the ways that humans’ minds and bodies work, as well as introducing new psychological phenomenons, including Social Media Anxiety Disorder, Phantom Vibration Syndrome, and NoMophobia. Is the worldwide “24/7 companion” actually harming the population of Earth?

How can one possibly get through their day without checking Instagram?

Me time: Just me, myself, and my phone.

Since when has communicating through social media become the only form of communication?

Including how much time they spend on computers, tablets, and laptops, the time spent on technology totals up to approximately nine hours per day.

Though social medias and smartphones have acquired various positive traits throughout their existences, such as their uses for networking for professional jobs and connecting with friends, the downsides ultimately outweigh the benefits. People waste almost five hours a day on their smartphones. Including how much time they spend on computers, tablets, and laptops, the time spent on technology totals up to approximately nine hours per day. The average person’s amount of time spent on electronics is longer than his or her average amount of time spent sleeping, which is about seven and a half hours per day, and longer than his or her time spent with family. Additionally, constant updates from Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and other medias also prove harmful to the people receiving them. Due to unceasing notifications, apps and medias on smartphones have the potential to create drug-like addictions in anyone who uses them. This arbitrary use of media in a fast-paced world undoubtedly creates extremely negative effects on humans individually and as a community. With all of these downsides, it is no surprise that ever since technology has become a norm in society, different types of anxieties and dysfunctions have surfaced as a result of its excessive use.

What's wrong with these pictures? They all show how dangerously technology has taken over the world. Photos by: Michael Sohn (NBC), US Department of Health & Human Services, Losberger.

Countless dysfunctions have materialized due to the overuse of technology and social media. Social Media Anxiety Disorder is now the third leading psychological disease in the United States, and has taken its toll on many avid users of social media and technology. Social Media Anxiety Disorder, or SMAD, consists of constant angst caused by either the excessive use or non-use of one’s phone. People potentially acquire the anxiety from becoming stressed out over notifications, or they acquire the anxiety from the absence of their phones. Another disorder, Phantom Vibration Syndrome, occurs when one thinks that his or her phone has vibrated or buzzed, but it hasn’t. This sensation happens because a bodily itch is sensed as a phone vibration. Suggested by this phenomenon, social media and smartphones are potentially changing the ways that nervous systems work, and rewiring brains in unprecedented ways. Moreso, another disfunction is called NoMophobia. NoMophobia has been introduced as a fear of not having one’s smartphone on or near him or her. All three of these disorders have similar symptoms: an addiction to social media, unease without one’s phone, or on the contrary, constant attachment to one’s phone. Though Social Media Anxiety Disorder, Phantom Vibration Syndrome, and NoMophobia have become popular derangements in recent years, the question still remains: what has caused the population of technology users to acquire these disorders?

Because what kind of family gathering would it be if everyone actually talked to each other instead of locking themselves to their phones? Photos by The Huffington Post, Galactic Connection.
People are now more likely than ever to focus more on social media than they are to focus on human interaction.

Surprisingly, disorders such as Social Media Anxiety Disorder, Phantom Vibration Syndrome, and NoMophobia possess many different causes, but addiction is the most common source. Findings prove that five to ten percent of technology users have absolutely no control over how much time they spend online; they are physically unable to detach themselves from their screens. An excess in virtual reality and a lack in “real” reality creates social anxieties in technology users, inevitably creating segues into the disorders from social media and smartphones. Furthermore, a huge influencer of SMAD is little to no human interaction. Studies have proven that alpha waves, usually associated with daydreaming, are highly powerful when one is using any form of technology. This suggests that because of technology overdosage, people are becoming less attentive to their lives and the world around them; because of these short attention spans, people are now more likely than ever to focus more on social media than they are to focus on human interaction. In addition, neuroscientists have discovered what is known of as a “compulsion loop.” When using social media or playing games on technology, the user is often rewarded, be it by “likes” on social media, or by “coins” on games. The rewards trigger a release of dopamine, the “happy hormone,” in the user, which leaves them wanting more, and trapping them in an endless loop on said media or game. Dopamine is favorable in moderation, but if one is excessively exposed to it as one is when drinking alcohol, doing drugs, or spending time on media, it can harm the body in extremely negative ways. Though many other different factors have the capability of causing these disorders, it is unwillful addiction more than anything that leads to illnesses such as SMAD, Phantom Vibration Syndrome, and NoMophobia. Every type of disorder that has emerged from technology has been triggered by a plethora of reasons, but that does not justify why these disorders cannot be easily overcome by those who suffer from them.

It's not only the young ones who have become addicted.

Human interaction is at an all time low. Social media? At an all time high.

Mothers and daughters don't have that special kind of bond anymore; it has been plagued by technology.

Because people would rather sit alone with their smartphone than strike up a conversation with another lone person and make a new friend.

Just because someone suffers from a disorder due to social media and technology does not mean that they can’t overcome it through proper treatment. In addition to curing by disconnecting from media platforms, sufferers of the disorders can attend various therapies in order to control their addictions and anxieties. The aim of these therapies is to control and cease any adverse effects and anxieties from the disorders. Likewise, assortments of “digital detox” getaways have surfaced for those who want to completely rid themselves of their phones for a week or two. At these camps, adults are able to leave all technology at the door and experience living in the moment instead of living in their screens. Detoxes not only let people get away from their phones, but they can help to treat technology-caused disorders. While disorders from technology at first seem incurable, there are numerous different and effective healing methods for them.

Step away from the screen and into real life.
Step away from the Instagram post that captures the picture perfect landscape, and go out and find it.

The hustle and bustle of today’s society has only been accelerated further by the excessive use of technology. Over one-third of the world’s population uses some type of social media platform. With this statistic growing larger every day, it is no wonder why the number of people who suffer from anxieties and disorders caused by technology is growing larger every day. The negatives of social media undoubtedly outweigh the minuscule number of positives, and moreover, smartphones are incomprehensibly changing the population’s brains and nervous systems in unprecedented ways. But while technological disorders are all too prevalent on Earth today, cures and treatments are available and helpful. So maybe the next time you see anxiety-ridden people impatiently awaiting a response to an important email, or fidgety humans compulsively checking their latest Instagram post, or folks sweating bullets because they’ve texted their friend but haven’t received a response, you can recognize the downsides of social media, smartphones, and technology. Maybe next time you see these people, you can begin to spread the word; alert them of these disorders, alert them of their causes, alert them of their cures. Ultimately, the world will not be the same when the entirety of the population is bedridden with life altering disorders caused by social media, smartphones, and technology. Step away from the Instagram post that captures the picture perfect landscape, and go out and find it.

See the perfect landscape through your own eyes. Venture, and you shall find.

Credits:

Created with images by 2742255 - "phone cellphone smartphone" • Pexels - "call iphone log in" • Leo Hidalgo (@yompyz) - "Notification" • kropekk_pl - "keyboard buttons messenger" • Jangra Works - "Handcuff and Locked With Smart Phone" • red line highway - "digital addiction" • Go-tea 郭天 - "Meeting with friends" • red line highway - "phone addiction" • Go-tea 郭天 - "Disconnected" • Lauren_Hannah - "Get grounded. Only at Outside Lands would they have a digital detox campground. #ol2014 #sfoutsidelands" • Pexels - "adult asphalt blur"

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