Time: 3:30 a.m.
State of mind: I'm awake!
Reason: The guy in the apartment above mine thinks its a good idea to stomp his feet while getting around his apartment.
I rub my eyes groggily, and realise I could do with a drink of water. After some more eye-rubbing, the first thing I do is involuntarily reach for my iPhone, and check each notification, and all this is before one actual coherent thought has passed through my mind. As my mind wakes up, I process each displayed message, and I reply as I sleepily shuffle to the kitchen. Sound familiar? Welcome to the age of smartphones.
Time: 10 a.m.
State of mind: Busy. Very busy.
As I sit at my office desk, with an Excel sheet filled with numbers that will take forever to analyse, I sneak a peak at my iPhone. Zero notifications. I sigh and shift my attention back to the numbers. Two minutes pass. I sneak another peak...you know, just in case. Absolutely nothing has changed. Just to make sure, I open all the individual apps, thinking how come no one has messaged me in over an hour. And, now that I am anyway distracted might as well try beating my high score at Temple Run. Before I know it, I have failed unsuccessfully multiple times, and it is 11 a.m. What? Where did that one hour go?
Time: 2 p.m.
State of mind: Bored enough to start knitting a quilt.
The numbers have been analysed, and I tap impatiently wondering what is taking everyone so long to reply to messages sent hours ago. The screen lights up, and my fingers won't fly fast enough on the tiny touchscreen keyboard of my iPhone to keep up with the multiple message threads on various apps, iMessage, Whatsapp, Facebook, Gtalk, you name it. And of course, playing some random games as I wait for the next reply. Post-lunch is the best time to catch up with people, all over the world. Soon, it's time to head home, and I have had a relatively unproductive day at work, save those two hours I spent working...the bane of the smartphone age.
Time: 7:30 p.m.
I finally use my phone for the reason it was invented, as a phone, talking to my mum, and as she goes off on a tangent, I plug in my headphones, and continue my hmms, and quickly delete the emails I don't need, play Temple Run one more time, reply to a couple of messages, 'Instagram' a few photos, and download a few apps I have been meaning to...and then she wonders why I sound distracted.
Time: Who cares? It's sleep time!
I quickly reply to a few more messages, a quick round of Fruit Ninja, set multiple alarms, set a few reminders about people I need to call, calculate money spent this week, make a list of things to get from Walmart, scour Amazon to see if the lens I want is back in stock and finally set the iPhone aside. I switch off the lights and lay in bed, trying to will myself to sleep. But then, I can't help but sneak a look at my iPhone, just to see if anything new happened on one of the groups on Whatsapp. A few more quick replies, and I chide myself on my obsession and keep it aside again, only to know that the vicious cycle is unending. Sigh.
So, there is an insight into a typical (and unproductive) day of someone who is a "smartphone addict". And, I haven't even mentioned all the other times I use my iPhone to browse the Internet, randomly check the weather, catch up on the news headlines on CNN, stalk someone on Facebook, look up a few good deals, and other such idiosyncratic instances.
When Vivek suggested writing about the smartphone addiction that seems to be taking over the world, I scratched my head at first, thinking about the actual statistics. A quick Google search (yes, I am crippled without technology!) told me what I wanted to know. Only 20% of all the phones in the world are smartphones (about 30 percent of all phones are smartphones in the US), or at least classified as "smartphones", but the more interesting statistic is that 89% of smartphone users admit to using their phones throughout the day. That gives me some relief; I am not completely alone! Sometimes, I wonder what we did when texts were limited to 140 characters (for the fear of overage...no one wanted to pay the extra 25 paise for just one word!), smileys were weird combinations of symbols and letters, and the only music your phone could play were irritating 'filmy' monotone ring tones, and when the only real purpose of a cell phone was to call and text (oh, and play Snake!). I remember being jealous when a friend bought a new Nokia phone with a color display! And although, some times I miss having a good ol' sturdy Nokia, using which I could text blindfolded, I know how incomplete I'd feel without my iPhone. My phone doubles up as a music player, a GPS, a camera, my weatherman, restaurant finder, alarm clock, apart from countless other uses. The irony is I used to scoff at people who spent half their waking time looking at their smartphones. The dark side beckoned and I am one of them now! But it's true...as technology progresses, with better user interfaces, newer apps, smaller, sleeker phones being introduced, it is a little difficult to escape the glitz of the smartphone world.
So, how do you recognize one of us? It really isn't that difficult. Does the person in question:
1. Look randomly at his/her phone even if the screen is still dark, every ten minutes or less?
2. Invent and use verbs like instagrammed, whatsapped, yelped, four-squared, in everyday talk
3. Seem to look down at his/her hands (especially when at a table) even when you are talking? (Another possibility here is that you are plain boring. I'll give you the benefit of doubt)
4. Smile for no apparent reason, especially while looking at their hands? (trust me, they are laughing at message/joke they just received)
5. Use trains/buses/cars instead of travelling by air to avoid the time his/her phone needs to be switched off?
6. Seem beady-eyed and distant, when they switch off their cell phones, if traveling by air?
7. Reply to your messages even when you know they are in the bathroom?
8. Check their phone as they brush their teeth, comb their hair, and maybe even as they have a bath?
9. Justify their checking their phone so often by claiming they are expecting "important, work related e-mails", even though they are a part of the lowest tier of their organization's hierarchy?
10. Carry their phone charger wherever they go, even if just to the grocery store, just to be sure their phone doesn't die on them?
If you answered yes to 7 or more of these questions then the person in question is most definitely addicted to his/her smartphone. (Also, you can tell me if it's you, I promise not to tell anyone!).
I wish I could say it's all good. There are definite pitfalls of the speed at which this smartphone fever is spreading. Earlier, a smart ass could be just that...a smart ass; random comments that sound mildly intelligent, and no one would call him on it. Now, after even a slightly dubious sounding statement, you have someone ready to prove him wrong, courtesy mobile wikipedia! Earlier, you could convince your friends to go to your favorite restaurant even if you were the only people who would be eating there. Now, no one steps into a restaurant before thoroughly researching reviews and menus on Yelp, Four Square and other such apps. Earlier, on a car trip, the person with the lone iPod was king. Now, everyone thinks they are A.R. Rahman, and have their own exclusive playlists that they want to listen to. (believe me, this leads to a lot of disagreements!)
Statistics show that people use their smartphones the most for texting. I can see how that is true, proven easily by the sheer volume of messages I have exchanged with friends. And, now that I think about it, more than a smartphone addiction, it's a cell phone addiction. Very often I see teens, not more than 16 years of age, furiously texting on a phone that looks like it survived the apocalypse. As long as it serves its purpose, they are content. Not a care in the world, they text as they walk, as they drive, as they eat, even as they (almost) sleep. (Again, I am one to talk!) Technology truly is taking over the world. I was shocked when a friend mentioned that his three year old nephew wants an iPad. When I was three, I was content with some huge plastic building blocks. But then, I also see my friends stare at me like I'm insane, when I laugh out loud on seeing a text, or exclaim loudly on losing a point, not really caring for social manners. So, whether you own a smartphone or not, whether you are an addict or not, we are soon coming to get you. It's inevitable.
P.S: Interesting set of statistics... [http://ansonalex.com/infographics/smartphone-usage-statistics-2012-infographic/]
