In a March 29, 2022 article from Wired, which is excerpted from Sally Hayden’s book My Fourth Time, We Drowned, it was pointed out that refugees prioritize “a phone over any other possession.”
Though I dare not overlook the fundamental differences between foreign migrants and United States citizens, there is a question that is often overlooked, though it is still worth asking— is not the same true for Americans?
As we know, few societal alterations have been as profound as the universal kinship woven between humans and their portable, digital devices, for one need not look far in academia, medical journals, authorship, history, social research, computer science, the media, or a local McDonalds dining area, all places in which the degree of change that has been initiated by technology is consistently made note of and easily observed.
I do not think it goes too far to say that the American depiction and symbolism of the stars and stripes has been supplanted by the icon of a smartphone in every pants pocket or bra strap. Some assert that there remains an aptitude for many to favor their phones over the fellowship of their friends, family, or their peers. The idea has even been presented that our culture may not be too far off from fully realizing the quip in which one’s child undertakes the burdensome task of unplugging their mother’s life support in order to charge their smartphone.
But, of course, what we are dealing with here is no joke. Should you believe such alterations in culture are inconsequential, then perhaps there may be use here in contemplating the answers to questions like “Do you have your phone on you right now?” “How many times a day do you look at your phone?” “Can you recall the last time you went a day without reaching for your digital device?” “Would your emotional stability remain intact if you happened to misplace your phone?” “Can this cultural-attachment to technology affect the mental and emotional state of adults?” “And what of children?” “Can the incessant non-ionizing radiation emitted by the smartphone carry with it long-term health impacts?” “Assuming you have confronted the unsettling silence received when addressing someone who is distracted by their smartphone, how did being overlooked in such a way make you feel?”
Naturally, it has not escaped my mind those who must work from their digital device, or those who must use one to keep in contact with loved ones, or to run their business, or those who utilize it for extensive physical or medical monitoring, or the infirm who rely on the technology in order to foster a sort of closeness they otherwise could not acquire, or those who must depend on their phone for a host of other issues. And my intent here is not to slight those who will answer these questions in the traditional American fashion, for the technology, in these cases, and others, are to be recognized as being beneficial to its users, and so I have no consternation with such applications.
But it should also be recognized that the uses to which smartphones are put in culture differ greatly.
In light of understanding this, the technology’s insistence on the unceasing concentration of the whole of humanity is not to be ignored. Though smartphones were sold for years by Blackberry and other companies beforehand, it was Apple’s 2007 unveiling of the iPhone that revolutionized the tech industry and generated novel business models, and in doing so birthing billion dollar companies in its wake.
“In 2005,” detailed author David T. DeBaun, in his book Radiation Nation: The Fallout of Modern Technology, “only 33.9 percent of people across the world had a mobile subscription. By 2015, that number almost tripled to 96.8 percent! In 2016, there were over 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide. Along with this growth, over the past decade, we’ve also seen the evolution from flip phones to smartphones, such as the iPhone, which have paired computer technology with cellular capability. In addition, we are also able to connect to the Internet and other devices via wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Bill Gates’s goal of putting a computer in every home seems quaint in a world where the growing trend is a computer in every pocket! We now hold extraordinarily powerful computers right in the palms of our hands.”
As it happens, 2012 was a banner year for smartphones, the year in which the amount of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50 percent, while a 2017 survey of more than 5,000 American teens found that three out of four owned an iPhone. And, as a survey by the Pew Research Center on January, 12, 2017, revealed, more than three-fourths of American adults use a smartphone, boosting internet use to then-record levels. According to Pew researcher Aaron Smith, 92 percent of adults under 29 own a smartphone, while three-quarters of those 50 and older are now smartphone users.
A later report by Pew found that, in the US, 91 percent of adults under 50 use a smartphone, in addition to the 95 percent of teens who have access to one. Other data suggests that the average phone user in the U.S. spends over four hours a day on their mobile device. Certainly, the personal connection fostered between ourselves and digital devices shows no signs of faltering— internet-connected devices, known as the broad category of the “Internet of Things,” were expected to increase to the amount of 20.4 billion by 2020, according to the research firm Gartner.
To be sure, cell phones have, during their short tenure in commanding culture, risen from their simple suitability and status symbol to the smartphone— a now-naturalized function of life for nearly all people in societies subject to immoderate technological progress.
And no wonder, for the smartphone has now, at least to a great extent, displaced many anterior technologies that have long been significant to American culture— the traditional paper map, compass, level, wallet, alarm clock, landline telephone, watch, cassette tape, tape recorder, CD player, digital camera, radio, calculator, desktop computer, notepad, television set, MP3 player, in addition to many others.
It is important to understand that I have no quarrel with those who, for their own purposes, require the technology to effectively govern their lives, for I am no stranger to the times in which we live. Indeed, I do comprehend that it has become, in large part, a compulsory part of our existence. But while we endorse its utility, is is fair to speculate on what it might take away from the experience of life.
A loss of a perceptual sense-of-self and a diminished capacity for action by devotees when apart from the technology are just some instances of this kind of reduction. But what is odd are the amount of smartphone users who have not noticed this cultural degradation. And because of how deeply the technology has been integrated into their lives, I have surveyed some who feel as though they are missing a piece of their physical selves when they do not know where their phone is.
You may gather for yourself a comprehension of this kind of anomalous technological-attachment, if you like, by observing the peculiarity of those in their anxious attempt to find their phone when leaving their home for school, or work, or to get dinner, or to the gym, or to the grocery store, or for a social outing, or even for a simple walk through the park.
It is also not uncommon for some to descend into a frenzied hunt to locate their missing phone, while others have been known to be deprived of strength, vigor and their capacity for effective action until the position of their device is pinpointed. Others have been known to experience a prolonged sense of internal tribulation as a result of being separated from their digital device, in which they instinctively and compulsively pat their pockets through the custom of reaffirming the loss of their device through physical contact with their body, for it is these people, or so it seems, whose smartphone has already, in such a quick time, become a member of their body construct.
And then there are those who can scarcely bring themselves to tolerate a world absent of the internet, or social media, or Bluetooth, the technology that allows people to connect wireless headphones and other digital devices to their smartphone. The point is that, for many residing in highly-technological cultures, favored technologies, either consciously or unconsciously, steadily become as essential as the very air they breathe.
In helping to illustrate this cultural infatuation with technology, we might look at prison inmates, who, as a result of being given justice, are naturally given a reduction in human rights to pay culturally for their offenses. But even their ready access to digital devices cannot be checked— according to the Alabama Department of Corrections, they have confiscated over 12,000 cellphones from prisoners in sweeps of all its facilities in a three-year period.
As put by Andrew Sullivan for the New York magazine, “The device went from unknown to indispensable in less than a decade. The handful of spaces where it was once impossible to be connected — the airplane, the subway, the wilderness — are dwindling fast. Even hiker backpacks now come fitted with battery power for smartphones. Perhaps the only ‘safe space’ that still exists is the shower.” Sullivan adds that, “Just look around you — at the people crouched over their phones as they walk the streets, or drive their cars, or walk their dogs, or play with their children. Observe yourself in line for coffee, or in a quick work break, or driving, or even just going to the bathroom. Visit an airport and see the sea of craned necks and dead eyes. We have gone from looking up and around to constantly looking down. If an alien had visited America just five years ago, then returned today, wouldn’t this be its immediate observation? That this species has developed an extraordinary new habit — and, everywhere you look, lives constantly in its thrall?”
Sullivan went on to say that, “By rapidly substituting virtual reality for reality, we are diminishing the scope of this interaction even as we multiply the number of people with whom we interact. We remove or drastically filter all the information we might get by being with another person. We reduce them to some outlines — a Facebook ‘friend,’ an Instagram photo, a text message — in a controlled and sequestered world that exists largely free of the sudden eruptions or encumbrances of actual human interaction. We become each other’s ‘contacts,’ efficient shadows of ourselves. Think of how rarely you now use the phone to speak to someone. A text is far easier, quicker, less burdensome. A phone call could take longer; it could force you to encounter that person’s idiosyncrasies or digressions or unexpected emotional needs. Remember when you left voice-mail messages — or actually listened to one? Emojis now suffice.”
He also stated that, “Our oldest human skills atrophy. GPS, for example, is a godsend for finding our way around places we don’t know. But, as Nicholas Carr has noted, it has led to our not even seeing, let alone remembering, the details of our environment, to our not developing the accumulated memories that give us a sense of place and control over what we once called ordinary life.”
“The smartphone is an intimate device,” adds The New York Times. “We stare rapt into its bright light and stroke its smooth glass to coax out information and connect with others. It seems designed to…enable emotional release and moments of passive reflection. We cradle it in bed, at dinner, on the toilet. Its pop-up privacy policies are annoying speed bumps in the otherwise instantaneous conjuring if desires. It feels like a private experience, when really it is everything but. How often have you shielded the contents of your screen from a stranger on the subway, or the partner next to you in bed, only to offer up your secrets to the data firm tracking everything you do?”
“The advent of the smartphone and its cousin the tablet,” wrote The Atlantic, “was followed quickly by hand-wringing about the deleterious effects of ‘screen time.’ But the impact of these devices has not been fully appreciated, and goes far beyond the usual concerns about curtailed attention spans. The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health. These changes have affected young people in every corner of the nation and in every type of household. The trends appear among teens poor and rich; of every ethnic background; in cities, suburbs, and small towns. Where there are cell towers, there are teens living their lives on their smartphone.”
As noted by author Cal Newport, in an opinion piece for The New York Times, “Under what I call the ‘constant companion model,’ we now see our smartphones as always-on portals to information. Instead of improving activities that we found important before this technology existed, this model changes what we pay attention to in the first place — often in ways designed to benefit the stock price of attention-economy conglomerates, not our satisfaction and well-being.”
He concluded, “The iPhone is a fantastic phone, but it was never meant to be the foundation for a new form of existence in which the digital increasingly encroaches on the analog. If you return this innovation to its original limited role, you’ll get more out of both your phone and your life.”
In describing some of the workings of the smartphone, my aim has not been to argue against its usefulness, or to claim that it cannot be of benefit in culture, or to disgrace the thought of carrying a digital device through one’s daily comings-and-goings, or to shame those who are dependent on it, or to lobby for its restriction in culture, for we must recall that every technology is a subtle mixture of the beneficial and the detrimental. And because our culture is not inclined to speak of technology’s deficits, but is instead liable to celebrate its offerings, I have taken it upon myself to elaborate on what it might alter.
I seek not to dispute that technology and electronic devices have the capability to raise the quality of life for many, in addition to enabling people to use technology to explore different ideas, achieve different aims and simplify life in general, for it is demonstrable that the smartphone and other technologies have had such an effect.
But it is not difficult to show that there are always consequences between technology’s contributions. I wish only to speak of what we already know our culture to be, to display our culture’s deep connection to technology, and to wonder if its clear value is justification for normalizing its role in every area of our lives without speculating of what the costs to its utility might be.