Smartphones dumb people
Article: SeungHoon Choi
Editor: Grace Oh
Designer: Sarah Cho
Editor: Grace Oh
Designer: Sarah Cho
South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. And from this sophisticated environment, it has become a social standard for citizens to own a smartphone, computer, and/or tablet. Chatting with people on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat for hours has sunk into people’s daily lives. However, constant use with these devices can be detrimental to a person’s health. Smartphones have been linked to sleep deprivation and losing the capability for long-term memories.
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Sleep is one of the most vital part of our lives and smartphones are taking that away from people. These devices emit blue-light, a light that is only present during the mornings. Due to constant interactions with these devices during the night, people mess up their biological clock. According to a survey done by the Telegraph, more than 50% of people are interacting with their smartphones before they go to bed. This means that a significant portion of the society is making themselves susceptible to blue-light induced sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation has been linked to heart disease, depression, and substance abuse.
While long-term memories stay in someone’s head, short term memories are much more fragile and a single distraction from a smartphone could erase the contents of one’s mind. A person could have the most world-changing idea, but due to a phone ringing, they would have lost that idea. Also, nowadays, people are taking notes, pictures, and videos on their phones instead of listening closely and enjoying the moment. According to the Huffington Post, taking photos tend to make people forget the moment. This means that people’s memories will not remember an event in their lives clearly due to relying on smartphones to do that for them. |
What does all of this mean on a global scale? Hundreds of thousands of citizens are sleep deprived and less productive. By this world being a less productive one, it may lead to an economic decline. Not only that, if people can not communicate with each other and remember the information they were told, miscommunications are almost inevitable. Miscommunication could lead to many detrimental events the world may never want to see. In order to prevent this, people should find a balance of time online and offline. They should spend time with others, write a book or play sports, instead of chatting and mindlessly moving their thumbs, emotionless.