Technology: The new cigarette everyone’s been smoking.

While we are hands down, full fledged fans of technology, there seems to be a rising fad of clinging onto your Smartphone at every waking moment or so research tells us. Technology has of course made our lives much easier in terms of connecting us with our peers, passing time and gaining valuable data but at what cost? Have a look at this recent findings:

“Researchers from the University of Glasgow found that half of the study participants reported checking their email once an hour, while some individuals check up to 30 to 40 times an hour. An AOL study revealed that 59 percent of PDA users check every single time an email arrives and 83 percent check email every day on vacation.”

Another study by the Pew Research Center’s internet and American Life Project revealed that at least 44% of cellphone owners have slept with their phone next to the bed and about 67% had gone through the experience of checking their phone even when it was not ringing or vibrating, resulting on what is termed as the “Phantom Rings”.

Off lately, I have also been hearing the term “Technology servitude” on a lot of platforms discussing this issue. This term signifies the technology-obsessed individual’s loss of personal freedom as he/she misses out on the simple life experiences by locking themselves in the cage of technology, either texting, sharing, or browsing the internet on 24/7 basis. Technology servitude as the name suggests, refers to being enslaved by technology, by letting technology rule over you even while you’re doing something which requires your full attention at that time (individuals have been reported to view their phone 150 times a day!).

We came across another blog post that interviewed Dr.Larry Rosen, PhD, author of iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us, who says,

“Technology has become the center of our social world, compelling us to always keep checking in to see what we’re missing,”.

This subsequently leads to the overuse of technology, and what Dr. Rosen terms as “IDisorder”. Patients suffering from this condition are reported to exhibit signs of everything, from obsessive compulsive disorder to attention deficit disorder.

The main question that ultimately arises from this issue: Has technology turned out to be a boon or a bane for us? Is it one of the prime reasons why most of the individuals today are disconnected from live experiences? How do we overcome this addiction? Let us know what you think about this issue by giving us a shout out @zombieslounge / @IBRemarketing

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