Our new lifestyle has made the use of mobile phones indispensable and we can hardly think of life totally independent from these magic tools called the cellphones. No one can deny the fact that these smartphones help us to tackle the different challenges in our life easier. Every professional uses them as a bounty to solve many issues he faces in performing his or her official duties properly. Even the common men take many benefits from these smartphones in their daily lives.
Our over-dependence on these smartphones has developed a strange psychological condition in us which has been named “Nomophobia”. In simple words, Nomophobia is a psychological condition in which a human mind feels the fear of the consequences of the absence of a mobile phone in his or her life. The fear of losing one’s mobile phone is one thing but the fear of not having it close to you always is “Nomophobia.” The human brain has got attached to these new magic tools in such a way that it feels its own abilities and capabilities incomplete without their presence. That is why our minds are often concerned about the whereabouts of these cell phones. For example, if a person has kept his cell phone in his pocket or left it somewhere else he or she often thinks about it and a strange fear of being away from the smartphone engulfs his or her mind which indicates the presence of Nomophobia in his or her mind. From young children to our elderly generation everyone has got extremely attached to these smartphones they seem to be present everywhere with everyone twenty for seven in our lives.
These electronic devices have caused a number of grave issues in our society too. The minds of our young generation particularly have become stressed and irritated due to the excessive use of these phones. Our young minds are over-stressed by the games which they play endlessly without any other considerations in their minds. We witness the youth being drowned in these games for long hours which neither provide any exercise nor teach any discipline like the traditional games and sports provide us in our daily lives.
This cellphone revolution has also sidelined many great habits which benefited our elderly generations. For example, the book reading and newspaper reading habit have decreased in our young ones. Even witty and intelligent students prefer to read from the screens in spite of the books. However, screen reading can hardly replace book reading.
Book studying has its own taste and class. The excessive use of screens for reading causes many physical and mental issues for our young generations particularly. Not long ago there was a time when people used to begin their days by newspaper reading. This trend has decreased now and people prefer e-papers in place of traditional papers. But we cannot witness the taste of reading print papers by reading e-papers. The cellphones and all such other electronic tools provide us the shortcut solutions but in the long run, they may cause bigger problems that would be hard for us to take in the future.
Our mobile phones are no doubt, great bounties for us if they are used properly and judiciously. As it is a well-known saying that excess of everything is bad same is the case with these cell phones. We have to find ways to minimize our excessive dependence on mobile phones otherwise, Nomophobia may continue to dictate our lives and this may lead to devastating results. It would be better for us to act before it is too late. In this case “digital fasting” is a wise idea to minimize the use of cell phones and other similar devices in our daily lives. Digital fasting, in simple words, means to lessen the use of cellphones and other devices in our daily lives. We can make regular schedules to manage properly our use of these digital devices. Digital fasting would be a great strategy if employed properly to save us from the over stress and other bad effects which the extreme use of these devices cause in our lives.
Author is a Govt Teacher. He can be mailed at bukhari.hilalahmad5@gmail.com
