Smart Devices today has been a source of productivity in the lives of many in terms of effective communication, online forum discussions, information sharing, real time chats, health monitoring and many more. Its almost inevitable to stay offline or go without your smartphone. It seems like a temporary stop of the heart beat. Looking all around you are folks walking and texting, driving and pinging, eating and sharing photos. Our lives today have been so enraptured with the use of these devices that there are high tendencies of us not concentrating on the important issues at particular points in time. This has led to cases of distractions during official meetings, accidents during driving, unconsciously turning the frying pan over during cooking and even neglecting our loved ones during conversations.
Internet Porn, Child Pornography, Drug and Child Trafficking, Broken relationships have been promoted more in this generation of evolving technological trends. In the space of effective communication comes people into serious relationships having issues of their partners engaging in acts of sexting or chatting with someone else they probably love or admire. Most lives today have been tagged as ‘My smart device and I’. Quite a percentage of people who own a smartphone prefer to keep their smartphone beside them not for reasons of emergency or necessity but for relationships outside of their primary ones. A percentage prefer their devices locked with security codes always because of privacy relating to their relationships.
Survey have shown that people choose to lose a friend than to lose their smart phone which is a scary development as far as relationships are concerned.
Anita, A Financial Analyst came home from work one day expecting to get hugs and kisses from her children who have been on holidays for almost a month only to get a ‘cold’ response to her greeting because the kids were engrossed playing ‘Angry Birds’ . Peter had decision problems at the office and wanted some suggestions from his wife on the next step to take but she was only interested in uploading her photos on Instagram combined with playing Candy Crush. Edward, A happily married man was asked to leave an important meeting for reasons of distraction because he was chatting with a girlfriend on how to have dinner that evening.
The sad part is that it can’t get any better with the constant release of highly affordable, attractive devices with high functionalities. Interacting with a neutral environment, without a smart phone nearby could help foster closeness, interpersonal trust, perceptions of empathy and connectedness which are the building blocks of relationships.
Smart devices are meant to be controlled to our benefit and not the devices controlling us to our detriment.
