Nomophobia.
One beautiful day, I was
having a date with my friend planning to have a movie marathon in the cinema. While
waiting for the movie, we planned to get some refreshment near a café called
PCLO that served churros as the main dish. The second he gets up to go to the
toilet, I quickly grabbed my phone, started scrolling and checking all the
social media I have in my phone.
It was some kind of a
panic attack when I have to sit there all alone and I trying hard to avoid eye
contact to those near me. I felt like I am vulnerable to every assumption that
I have in mind for instance, people will think that I am a weirdo watching them
from far. That I decided to just stick with my phone, act like I need to attend
important messages. Once he came back, our conversation resumes as usual with
none of us attached with the gadget.
The good side of it is
that, smartphones able to keep us accompanied without having to put so much
effort of being occupied. Simply just withdraw your phone, you are now no
longer in the place that you are sitting and you can get instant distraction. That
is probably one of the perks using smartphones literally. Yet, it is hard to
say when this handheld device became such a major source of obsession,
replacing all human real life interaction. Smartphone might seem very hard to
hate but if we are unable to control the consumption of it, we might face a big
problem.
Just like the documentary
that we watched in the class, from a journalist that was smartphone addict, he
even went to the healing camp, a two days grounded camp where he has to keep
away all the gadget he have, enjoying regressive activities organized by the
campers in the end he was still addicted to his smartphone due to his work
requires him checking the e-mails and keep on update about the recent news.
Whether he likes it or not, he is considered as smartphone addict even after
going to the digital detox camp.
Bottom line is that, we
choose what we want to do with our smartphone. It is not that smartphone makes
us addicted, it is how we control the usage of smartphone, how do we handle our
life without smartphone. Maybe, you can invest a little time reading this
article from The Guardian title “Smartphones are stealing our time. This new year, I want to claim it back- Marcus Gilroy-Ware” he talks about practicing new year’s resolution of less smartphones.
In this
article, he concluded that “It is easy to sound moralistic,
but the point I make is more about claiming back our thinking time and our
attention from these devices. Every second that we don’t spend on a smartphone
is one we could spend in some other more meaningful way. You don’t have to
volunteer or read classic literature, but at least you have that time at your
disposal. How you spend it is up to you." It is a short simple yet meaningful to us since
we are the one who control our body.
To conclude,
we are all have a different usage pattern of digital gadget. It is up to us to
decide either we want to be fully dependent on the device or we can make a
different. Here’s a short video of about our internet addiction in this
generation. Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?
Hi Nurul!
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that smart phones have become so useful nowadays that people depend on it to do most of our tasks in that particular day. Because people can do anything with their smart phones we almost do not need any other medium to meet our needs. For example, back in the days when we were still “capable of doing things by ourselves”, for us to pay our bills we need to go to a specific counter or office which we can pay the bills physically. But since nowadays there are thousands of ways of how people can pay their bills through their smart phones (as long they have internet connection), they choose that route instead of going to the office and pay it physically.
Smart phones too are very very useful when we are alone. Like Mr Jamali has mentioned in class before, even though we do not receive any message or emails, we still check our phone when we are alone. Sometimes that is the perfect time for us to check our phones’ “Gallery” and reminiscing all the pictures that we have.
Smart phones have become our main tool to avoid awkwardness too. When we are talking to someone that we are not close to, and the conversation has come to an end, we tend to take out our phones and start browsing whatever that we have in the phone. In which this is quite saddening as we choose to “connect” with our phones instead of with those people around us and most definitely I do agree that we make our own choice whether we want to be fully dependent on our smart phones or not. When we are sitting by ourselves, rather than going online, why don’t we read books instead? Or why don’t we start using our physical capabilities by going to the office that we can pay our bills to, instead of using our phones? I know some people might argue that time is the issue but successful people do not give excuses ;) So good luck to all!
Hi Nurul,
ReplyDeleteIm totally agree with your opinion that it is difficult to hate phone. This ia because we use phone in our daily life. Even when we are in toilet and in class, we still hold our phone even just scrolling Facebook or other app. It shows that our people, not all but majority of us depend so much in using phone to fill our time and also bore.
Besides, we also rely on our phone to do so many thing in our daily life. For instance, doing work, assignment, paying bill, online shopping and etc. It is undeniable that our smartphone today make our life more and more easier but at the same time, we used it as our partner. Means that whereever we go, we cannot leave our phone. Atleast we have something to look for rather than do nothing when we are in group or in a place that have people that also have phone.
We may think that standing among people that look into their phone while we are only stand and do nothing make us looks weird and speechless. So, we will take out our phone rather than talking with them or ecen smile with others. People laugh and smile when look into their phone but sometime not for face to face conversation because we may think that that person are not really close and engage with us. Therefore we choose to not communicate for longer time with people and back with our phone.
Im agree with Nadia that smartphone as a tool for us to avoid akwardness. Thats all from me. Thank u
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ReplyDeleteHello Nurul :)
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting story. I really interested with the title of your article which is nomophobia, that is a new word for me. Yet, I cannot find the definition of it in your writing above. Therefore, I try to search what it means by nomophobia. For your information, Elmore (2014) mentioned that "nomophobia is a term decribing a growing fear in today's world — the fear of being without a mobile devide, or beyond mobile phone contact".
After find out the definition of nomophobia, I realize that you are trying to explain the term by using your experience. Really interesting! To be honest, I strongly agree with you because I also do the same thing. For example, I'm not confident enough to walk alone because it might seems so weird and lonely. Thus, I will put my earphone on and looking at my phone all the way. In fact, it is not a good thing to do. Why? Because on our way to go to somewhere, we could meet our friends but we may not aware of it because we are too busy looking at our mobile phone. I can say that I'm quite depending on my smartphone whenever I'm alone.
However, if possible I do want to be depending on something like smartphone. Have you ever heard this famous quote "Technology should be a servant, not a master"? It means, I cannot let my smartphone control me, it makes me do not care with my surrounding. I should be the one who control my smartphone. Starting from now, I want to ask all of you to "take a break". Keep you phone for a while and interact with people around you. Live your life.
That's all from me. Thank you so much.
Hai Nurul.
ReplyDeleteterima kasih atas perkongsian yang sangat menarik daripada saudari.
saya sanagt bersetuju dengan kenyataan saudari yang mana kita berenggang dengan telefon.
zaman teknologi sekarang, amat susah itu tidak ada telefon bimbit bersama-sama kita.
banyak maklumat dan info-info terkini yang penting kita boleh dapatkan melalui penggunaan telefon.
saya sendiri secara jujurnya, sering menggunakan telefon bimbit untuk kegunaan peribadi. sebagai contoh untuk berhubung dengan ahli keluarga, rakan-rakan dan juga untuk mencari maklumat. Bagi saya, ianya lebih mudah dan cepat untuk berkomunikasi berbanding dengan mencari maklumat di komputer.
walaubagaimanapun, saya sendiri tidak mahu terlalu bergantung dengan telefon bimbit kerana bersosial dan berkomunikasi dengan orang lain secara berdepan lebih penting dan bagus untuk sesuatu perhubungan.
-Hanim-
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ReplyDeleteHello Nurul and everyone.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that smartphones can help us to avoid awkwardness. When I am waiting my turn at the bank, I will start to scroll my Facebook. There is one time, my phone was broken, and I was waiting my turn to pay the bills, so to avoid awkwardness, I watched the television at the counter.
It is undeniable that technology has made us socially awkward. But for me, when I am in public places like Bank or airport, I am afraid to communicate with other people because there are so many cases where by people get hypnotised and their money get taken. I do not want that to happen to me.
It may seems like an excuse, but you might avoid from getting robbed by using smartphones.
That is all from me. Thank you.
Hello everybody! As our topic this time is about addiction to smartphone, I also want to share my experience too. I am one of the smartphone addict. I spend almost 4 to 5 hours average a day on my smartphone. Sometimes, when i want to check my messages for a few minutes but it turns out to 1 hour without I even realize it!
ReplyDeleteAnd also when my smartphone having some problems like the system hang or battery drained, my mood will change drastically and I am gonna scold the smartphone like a crazy. Crazy right?
I do agree with Nurul Azman about smartphone helps us a lot to avoid awkwardness when we are alone in the public area. We do not feel lonely even we do not have anyone accompanying us at that time and we are very okay with it. But, once our smartphone died or anything, we suddenly feel helpless. Crazy right?
At some point, I do have a thought that, are we might go insane if we live without our smartphone? Hmmm..
Assalamualaikum. Hye Nurul Atiqah.. Thanks for the good discussion that you had been post.
ReplyDeleteIt is reality nowadays that people are full depending on digital gadget in their life. The reason they do such that is because the modernization of technology that have many uses and needs are giving attention to them to use it every time and everywhere. Sometimes digital gadget is a something that compulsory to us to use in order to do any work or job in our daily routine. I cannot say it is a bad behavior or bad routine. It is depend on the people how they can control of their habit or behavior to avoiding from over depending on digital gadget.
Digital gadget also experienced it in my life. I am always using my phone every day and every time and sometime I will not communicate with other people because I’m always with my phone. It is bad communication from me because I am avoiding myself to speak with other people to play with my phone. As long as my battery phone not empty I will be with my gadget. I don’t know why but it is my routine when I am feel that I’m not have mood to speak with anyone and I will choose my phone to rely on.
But, I am not a person that “no phone I’m die”. It is because I can do many things if I am not with my phone. For the example, when I go back my hometown, I actually not depending on my gadget. For me, the quality time with my family is number one that is very important in my life. I can life without phone until two, three days and more because I think digital gadget is not suitable for me to play every time at my hometown. Digital gadget give meaningful when I and my family are going holiday and make some picture all of us. So, that’s it.
When I am in UNIMAS all things are depending on gadget. Sometimes, I not have much time to do anything because I am always with my phone. It can make me stress because the group work in Whats App and anything that burden me. I don’t know why gadget is the first things that I will grab in order to do something. So, at the end my life in UNIMAS is mostly are depending on digital gadget in order to make me valuable and knowledgeable.
That’s all from me. Thank you.
Selamat sejahtera Nurul, terima kasih untuk perkongsian.
ReplyDeletesaya sangat bersetuju, dan ia seperti "senjata" diwaktu memerlukan.
tetapi ia tetap bergantung kepada keadaan, saya juga merupakan bukan seorang terlalu mendahului gajet, saya selalu terlupa membawa telefon untuk menghadiri majlis atau ke kelas.
Selain itu, saya juga bukan individu yang bangun pada pagi hari dan mencari telefon bimbit.
jika saya pulang ke semenanjung, lagi jarang saya melihat telefon hal ini kerana, saya banyak menghabiskan masa bersama ahli keluarga seperi mak dan abah saya.
mungkin disebabkan mak dan abah saya tidak mempunyai smart phone, dan ini tidak mendorong saya untuk sentiasa melihat telefon.
dan saya juga yakin, jika terdapat hal kecemasan mereka akan terus menelefon bukan hanya whatapps dan post di facebook.