Have you ever got on a train and noticed that everyone aboard was engrossed in their little gadgets? If you haven’t, it’s most likely because you were doing the same thing.
Yes, it has become increasingly clear that this tragic head-down phenomenon is on the rise in Hong Kong. More and more of the teenagers nowadays own a smartphone, as a study shows that more than 80 percent of Hongkongers aged between 18 and 34 now own one. That’s 4 out of every 5 people! Some others even call these empty-minded smartphone users as “smartphone zombies”. True, mindlessly using smartphones in public brings both physical and psychological disadvantages to you, and I will show you why.
To begin with, fiddling with your phone so much will have yourself end up in various strains and pains. A neurosurgeon, Dr. Harold Cheng Kin-ming stated that keeping your head down when using your phone actually exerts quite an amount of stress to the backbone. Besides, the repetitive finger action when pressing the screen of the smartphone may cause what is known as “gamer’s thumb”, and the strains to the thumb could last for years. The adverse impact is not to be ignored.
The harmful effects are only the tip of the iceberg. As a smartphone user myself, I too have experienced the psychological effects of the smartphone. How? My devotion and immense amount of attention to my smartphone make myself end up not heeding my surroundings – bumping into others frequently and having them angrily glaring at me. I’m not alone, though. The whole city’s atmosphere is affected at a large scale because the number of smartphone users has increased rapidly. It also leads to more distance between family members and close friends, as less face-to-face conversation takes place between them. The price is ponderous, isn’t it?
Personally, I don’t agree with the term “smartphone zombie” completely. Once a human has been turned into a zombie, there is no turning back. For smartphone users, however, they still have a fighting chance to get back on the right track. As teenagers, we can still fight a good fight to stop the habit of phubbing by restraining our time of using our phones. A timetable is a good tool to manage all things well, instead of procrastinating or phubbing.
I’d love to encourage everyone to use the smart gadget mildly and, yes, never be a slave, but the master please.