It is horrifying to consider the extent to which today’s generation has been enslaved by the screen. These days even a two-year-old child who does not know how to speak knows how to operate a smart phone and entertain itself!

People nowadays cannot leave their homes without their smart phones. Even a short departure from our phones now has the potential to cause us distress. Personally speaking, I myself cannot rest my eyes peacefully, even at night if I don’t have my mobile, secure within the reach of my hand. Why do we experience such attachment to a non-being? It is after all just a commodity, yet we hang on to it as though our lives depended upon it.

The term nomophobia is an abbreviation for “no-mobile-phone-phobia“. It was coined during a 2010 study conducted by a UK based research firm.

This term was developed by looking at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users. Literally, nomophobia means a fear of being parted from one’s mobile phone. This compulsive form of attachment can be linked to the purpose smart phones are being used for nowadays.

Mostly, mobile phones are now being used for the purpose of staying updated in activities of social media, text messaging and basically staying connected.

It has established a channel through which a person can connect with the primary attachment figures in their life.

Just the way from birth through infancy a child learns to find security in its family members, as adults we learn to get attached to the entity that helps us stay connected to them--smart phones.

In this day and age we rarely find people who do not use social media. Everyone uses some form of social media, and we as social beings have a strong need to belong.

Active use of social media gives us a sense of belonging and dismisses our fear of missing out. This is another one of the factors that has us chained to our smart phones which provide easy access to stay informed of social media updates.

This need of ours to be constantly present in the activities of others’ lives has affected our mental health and wellbeing. Social media-induced anxiety and depression has now become a reality and threatens the most productive age groups of a population (15-29 years of age).

Social media is used by many as a platform where one can display the highlights of one’s life, and we as humans tend to sink into the pools of self-created comparative misery. We can always choose to stop.

Curb our desire to check our mobile phones for every beep we hear, but internet use has already become our escape from the moment. We want to escape reality through internet use.

Smart phones are used not only to connect but also for the purpose of entertainment.

Children now are now foreign to the concept of “playing in the park”, teenagers are never seen without earphones plugged to their ears and it is rare to find any adult whose head is not bent down checking their smart phones, everyone is captured by their respective virtual worlds.

This too has become a contributing element that causes us to develop strong ties to our mobile phones. In the pretext of escaping reality we are being pulled in by imagery narcotics that compel us to keep staying hooked on to our mobile phones.

It is horrifying to consider the extent to which today’s generation has been enslaved by the screen. These days even a two-year-old child who does not know how to speak knows how to operate a smart phone and entertain itself!

However, many studies have revealed that prolonged screen time not only restricts physical activity of a child, it also hampers their cognitive development.

It strips away their creativity and hampers their reading habits. A child also misses on his/her opportunity to develop social skills through precious lessons learnt when at play with a peer.

Just the way anxiety is created by the need to stay connected; attachment to mobile phones is also displayed to avoid social conduct, which indicates the possibility of development of a social disorder.

This can be realized by how people today prefer virtual communication over live face to face interactions.

We choose to react to a picture posted by a person sitting in the same room, one seat away from us but refuse to appreciate it through live interaction.

Another factor that causes us to be enslaved by our own creation is the ability of smart phones to be personalized according to the users’ preferences.

It increases its value by a significant amount and creates a situation of panic if anything were to happen to it. Mobile phones are one of the many wondrous technological inventions, and they are meant to empower us, not to overpower us.

Technological advances have been proven to be a boon for us all in innumerable aspects. And in today’s world where smart phones are a must for everyone, boycotting its use all together is not possible.

However, there is a thin line when it comes to using it for personal convenience and being addicted to it. We must be able to exercise self-control and be careful of the “little breaks” that we take checking on notifications and subscription updates.

We must all learn to recognize and value the real things in life rather than being sucked into the world of virtual comfort.