What are the top three things that you always bring with you? Keys, wallet and your cellphone? Personally, my cellphone stays with me 24/7. The first thing I do after opening my eyes is check my Facebook, and the last thing before closing my eyes is texting “Good night” to my boyfriend. Does that sound familiar? It is happening to everyone. Watch out! Your smartphone is changing you unconsciously.
Marshall MacLuhan said, “We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.” Each tool or technology that humans have invented has changed themselves in response. The cellphone was designed to be a contact and connection tool at first, but it has become our laptop, camera, reader and everything you want it to be. The most important thing is that the smartphone is replacing other media as an information receiver. As a result, it changes a person’s thoughts, becoming oversimplified and disconnected. People who use smartphones to receive information usually spend spare time reading the news, and they want the information to be short and simple, like “one-word news.” Why are Facebook and Twitter so popular? They are short and filled with pictures, so people can read them within only a few seconds. Unfortunately, if it has become a habit for you — like updating Facebook all the time — it has probably changed you in some way.
Smartphones are so smart that they not only can change you unconsciously but also steal things from you sneakily. Every time I walk into a classroom before class begins, everyone is using their smartphones. There is no talking and no laughing. Friends who have lunch together are not chatting to each other but staring at their cellphones playing games or checking emails. Smartphones may give more reasons to be alone, but they also steal real conversation with people and your real life. Next time, if you are alone, you can try to feel and observe the things around you instead of staring at your smartphone. When you are waiting for a bus, you can have a nice conversation with a stranger. If you miss a girl/boy, don’t text her/him but directly go to their place and tell them face-to-face. Taking back the fun that smartphones steal from you will help you realize that spring is coming and flowers are blooming and how lovely the people around you are.
Smartphones can be good helpers, but they also possibly change you and steal your real life. Don’t ever become a slave to your phone. If you feel that your smartphone is controlling you, then watch out!
Xi Lu is a sophomore studying communications at Ohio University.
