Are you using Smart Phone smartly?

The whole world is connected. I remember the early days (70s and early 80s) when the only channel of communication was through Inland letters, post cards and telegrams! The excitement of going to the Post Office and waiting to receive a post is history now. Before the mobile technology, some excitement was there when people used to connect through Landline phones.  Why to go so far, even in the early days of internet, we were waiting to connect Desktop, dial-up connection (ko ko ko.. dial tone, remember?) and then read emails.

Today to be very frank, there is no excitement. The whole world is on your fingertips. The so called addiction, ‘smart phone’ follows you wherever you go, be it car, park, bedroom or bathroom. You will read mails almost on real time basis and you will know the world news on real time basis. Some of you may say that ‘it is an excitement – to know everything on real time basis’. Maybe, I don’t want to dispute about it.

But some of you who are using smartphones over 2-3 years will concur with me that Smart phone is no more as smart as we thought of. It is killing your personal time. It is an addiction. Look at some of the instances and what can be done to get rid of this addition.

Keep your phone away from bedroom – If you wake up during the night, you will invariably press the button of smartphone and start reading the caption/even the mails! I assume many of you are addicted this way. Suggestion – kindly keep smart devices away from bedroom (maybe put it in silent mode and keep it in the drawing room). If you want to see the time during the night, go back to the old system of ‘bedside alarm clock’.

Don’t carry the phone while going for a walk – If you are going to the park or for a walk, keep your mobile phone at home. In case you want to reach family members for an emergency, kindly have two phones. One phone for your very personal needs, the number of it should be known only to your family members. Maybe, you can carry personal phone while going for a walk. Suggestion – For heaven’s sake, don’t carry smart phone to social functions, while going to parks and walking, etc.

Read books not through your smart phones – I have seen some people reading e-books (200 pages or so) through smart phones. They read while in bed during the night. What a punishment! I have also seen people chatting while waiting at a doctor’s clinic! Suggestion – Read books, not e-books through smart phones. If you read 2 e-books through smart phones, consider it as ‘addiction’. It is no better than smoking!

Switch off/ put-it on silent while you are attending to guests – Talking to real people is more important than connecting to someone, known through Facebook. The joy of talking, mingling with people socially is unmatchable. Suggestion – When you have guests at home, kindly turn off your smart phones. The mails can wait, you can read it later.

Reply to official mails during office hours – Cultivate the habit of replying to official mails during office hours. If you start responding to office mails during holidays, trust me, you become a workaholic, which is worse than ‘alcoholic’. Suggestion – If you make it a habit of segregating office work and personal work, your boss/team members/clients will realize that you are not available during weekends. Initially, they may not appreciate it, but over a period of time, things will fall in place.  

Don’t open laptops at home– If you are on a holiday, kindly switch off the laptop/tablet.  Suggestion – if you are bored, laptop/tablet is not the answer. It is like taking a tablet for a headache or taking sleeping tablets. There are many activities in which one can engage during weekends or spare time, such as meeting friends and relatives, helping in the kitchen, cleaning the house, walking, playing, attending social functions, watching drama/cinema or going to temples/churches.

Internet/digital addiction is a disease. Most of time spent on computers is unproductive. This addiction can cause many physical and mental illness.

Pledge: Hello Friends (Those who are reading this article and agree with my views) can we pledge today that ‘We are not addicted to computers, smartphones or any other electronic devices. We will use it sparingly. We will also spread this message to our friends and colleagues to have a better and quality life’

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