As I climb on the bus, all around me faces are being lit up with the artificial glow of a screen. I walk down the aisle and find a seat next to my friend. Good! I can talk to her about my day! I sit down and look over, and see that her eyes are wide from staring into the small, shining phone in her hand. “Hey!” I wave my hand in front of her face, and she blinks.
“Oh! I didn’t see you there!” I smile and start talking to her, but soon her eyes travel right back to the phone. I’m left there, looking out the window alone, with faces all around me glued to the little devices in their hands. People need to spend more time connecting with others and less on electronics because that can cause family problems, physical problems, emotional problems, and more cyberbullying.
It is safe to say that most people don’t spend all of their time connecting with the people around them. Imagine this: a dad walks into his house after a long day at work. All he wants to do is see his family. He finds them all in the kitchen, each one of them glued to a screen. He tries to interact with them, but they push him away. Finally, he gives up and takes out his smartphone from his pocket. Everyday, scenarios like these take place all around the world. Families are being pushed apart, one click at a time. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation states that screen time should be limited to two hours per day. Families worldwide are finding that they double, even triple that time daily. Time is spent on beating Flappy Bird high scores instead of catching up and bonding with family and friends. “We don’t want to demonize media, because it’s going to be a part of everybody’s lives increasingly,” says Marjorie Horgan, a pediatrician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, “but we have to teach people to make good choices around it, how to limit it and how to make sure it’s not going to take the place of all the other good stuff out there.”
Spending too much time on electronics doesn’t just affect your family and social life. Electronics can cause obesity, sleep disorders, eating disorders, and eye problems as well. “[C]onventional reading is normally done with the book or magazine held in a lowered position. Having your [computer or phone] in a straight-ahead position is unnatural,” says Jeffrey Anshel, founder of Corporate Vision Counseling and author of Visual Ergonomics Handbook. As humans, our bodies are not built for looking at screens all day. Having that be a frequent part of your daily schedule can cause some real damage. In addition, looking at a screen for too long can also cause you to have Computer Vision Syndrome, or CVS. CVS is a condition resulting from focusing your eyes on a computer or other device for uninterrupted, long periods of time. Some people believe that most of their day is not spent on their computers or phones, so they are not in danger of having these problems. They’re wrong. Some people spend seven hours a day on electronics. Subtract that number from the average of sixteen waking hours we have each day, and that leaves you with only nine hours left of your day in which to do anything other than staring at a screen! I believe that people should spend less time looking at screens, and more time interacting with the environment around them.
Looking at screens for a long period of time can also cause emotional problems, as well as physical ones. According to the Public Health of England report, children who spend more time on computers, watching TV, and playing video games tend to experience higher levels of emotional distress. anxiety, and depression. Spending all of that time on computers can affect someone’s mental state and confidence in a negative way. Jeffrey Anshel says, “There is no one solution to all types of problems encountered with computer use.”
Another reason that people should spend less time on electronics is to help reduce cyberbullying. For this generation, cyberbullying is common. Sitting at a computer, a fake profile open, and typing hurtful things to other people is easy. You get to say what you want, and you don’t have to face consequences, right? Well, what the person typing doesn’t realize is, there is someone else sitting at the other end, reading those comments and feeling awful. “In high school, they don’t call it cyberbullying at all,” says Parry Aftab, who was honored by the United States Congress for her work in cyber safety. “They call it digital drama, they call it life.” Cyberbullying shows up everyday, so much so that this generation compares it to life. It happens so often, it might as well be. Being on electronics longer exposes people to an increased chance of cyberbullying.
Imagine a world where you could talk to your friends, without their attention being split between you and a computer. Imagine a world where families are never split apart by electronics. Imagine a world where no one gets sick from screens. You, the reader, can make this fantasy a reality.
Get closer to your families, and prevent yourself and others from hurting. It’s time to face the world without your phone by your side.
