From Urban Dictionary:
No-mo-pho-bia (\,nô-mə-`fô-bç-ə\) noun : an exaggerated, inexplicable, and illogical fear being without a mobile device, power source, or service area.Origin: Dubbed by British experts who claim that state that fifty-three percent of mobile users, with forty-eight percent women and 58 percent of men questioned in their study admitted to experience feelings of anxiety when they run out of a battery or credit, lose their phone, or have no network coverage.
source: http://www.e2save.com/
As a kid I was very curious. I always wanted to know more, and do more. So when my parents got me sitting around the table for dinner, or a family gathering, I thought this is the most boredom thing that could happen to me. Instead of playing with my toys, or reading a book, I had to just sit there and be quiet, or speak with the grown-ups. B-o-r-i-n-g!
But that boredom had a great power. It made me take my mind places. Dream about things happening around me, fantasaize about events that never really happened. My imagination worked the best at boredom moments, and my inner world expanded.
Another thing I used to do around the table, is to be quiet and listen to the grown-ups. Catching up new phrases, learning about politics and various issues – things I had no clue about – had filled up those moments.
Four days ago I’ve started testing a technic that should help me with my smartphone addiction. Turning on the Airplane Mode every night before I go to sleep, is keeping my phone off the network for the night hours, so when I wake up in the morning, turning my alarm off, I do not see gazillion notifications…
On these last four days I had great mornings, with coffee, radio and a shower, before I start dealing with the world and its notifications. That is why I got super thrilled finding out about the concept of the MoodOff Day. The MoodOff day is “A Morning A Year Without Technology”.
MoodOff Day. Image taken from their Facebook Page.
“My 3-year-old daughter spends 4 hours a day on her iPad…she’s an addict“
Are we raising a generation of addicted techno tots? It emerged this week that a four-year-old needed psychiatric treatment for her iPad addiction. And half of all parents let their children use tablets or smartphones – yet 81 per cent of mums and dads worry about the psychological effect, with many tots throwing tantrums when gadgets are taken away.
So what defines Organic Apps?
Let’s start by understanding what are non-organic apps, or should we call them Junk Apps?
Connectivity addiction happens when we consume junk apps that boost our ego, make us slaves to our smartphones, and use our data to sell to advertisers, and harm our privacy in other ways.
Here are few examples for what Junk Apps do:
Until we figure out the best way to get to pure organic connectivity, I decided to test few things on myself.
In each test, I will try a small step that might help me regain the relaxed yet connected life I wish for myself and others.
One of the annoying things about the smartphone addiction is how it affects my mornings rituals. I’m an early waker. Always was, probably always will be. I wake up around 7AM whether or not I partied last night. Sometimes I wish I could sleep longer, but what can you do, no one is perfect…
I have a cellphone for the last 15 years or so. And one of the things I’ve learnt – because of my early wake – is that I have to take care of my sleeping hours. Meaning that before I get myself under the blanket, I am closing my windows, the door, and also put my phone on Silent Mode. The silent mode helps me not to wake up from stupid phone alerts in the middle of the night.
But since I got my smartphone, this is how my morning ritual looks like:
– I wake up at 7AM with the alarm clock app
I admit it – I’m a smartphone addict. First thing in the morning, last before I fall asleep – I’m checking my phone. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Tech News and other apps – they got me hooked.
I look around me, and I see other people like me. And not only my age – my mom is addicted as well, my young nephews LOVE their dad’s phone and iPad and will use every chance to play with it.
It’s not news we are addicted to our phones. You can see it in every cafe, in the streets, in the office, and, well – good thing toilet walls are blocking me from see you there with your iPhone in your hands.
This has got to stop.
Jon Rettinger from TechnoBuffalo rants about our constant need to check smartphones in public places.
Before Apple and Google took over the phone world, people were less attached to their devices and could go out to dinner or a movie without being distracted by their phones. Now, anywhere you go you are almost guaranteed to see someone using their phone to check Facebook, read emails, or send texts instead of socializing and interacting with the people around them.
Jon has fallen victim to this behavior but has found a fun and creative way to stop it…
My Smartphone should be my helper, not my boss
is the fear of being without one’s mobile phone. Smartphone addiction is a real problem amongst this generation and is affecting peoples’ social lives and education is a negative way.
This documentary was created as a project at Bahrain Polytechnic, by Razan Salman
Instead of becoming slaves to our smartphones, let’s take back control of our lives. Let’s raise the awareness for having less push notifications, less addictive apps, less interruptions when we meet other people.
We don’t have to stop using technology – quite the opposite. Technology is a great thing, it can help us be smarter, more productive, up to date, in the know, more social…
But we should use it smarter than we currently do, we should ask the App developers to stop making us addicted.
UNDIGITIZE.ME 