The issue of cellphone addiction

Wherever they go, people tend to spend excessive periods of time on their phones. Along with fellow students Anna Festersen and Lucy Stavneak, I have started a campaign to prompt people to lower their screen time. The project promoting living life eyes up has been going on since September of 2018. We hope to create a world that is less comfortable with the amount of time people spend on their phones daily. 

Lessening one’s screen time is important because it can help a person to become healthier mentally and physically. The more time a person spends on his or her phone, the more likely it is that he or she will develop mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. Physically, people can suffer from a loss of sleep (insomnia), decrease in exercise and even cancer. According to researchers, every 100 hours a person spends on his or her phone drastically increases his or her chance of getting brain cancer. 

While working on this project, I have been trying to decrease my own screen time. Ending this past weekend, I was on a social media hiatus that I only interrupted to post a picture for my brother’s birthday on Instagram. Why did I feel the need to post about his birthday to social media? Were my words not enough? Why did I feel the need to download an app just to let the whole digital world see that I was wishing my brother a happy birthday? 

Social media and technology have given us thought processes different than we would have had prior to their use. In the past, people would have believed a person telling strangers about the entirety of his or her life to be crazy. Current times suggest that this type of behavior is the norm among members of the virtual community. I find myself with the constant desire to share my life on social media with people I am virtually connected with- some of whom I would not even consider friends. I wonder why we feel compelled to live through our phones and create digital connections while real life is so much more complex and personal. 

At some point, we become more involved in our digital lives than in the world around us. Without devoting some portion of our lives to improving the world– whether it be through building relationships with others, repairing the environment, or any number of other solutions- we are adding to the issue at hand. If people get off their screens and look at the world around them, they will see all that needs fixing. Time spent on media can be moved towards time spent creating a better planet for future generations. 

I wish for people to live life eyes up for their personal benefit and for society’s benefit. Less time spent on screens gives more time for other activities like saving the planet. Live Life Eyes Up is a campaign that promotes reduction of screen time while recognizing the many uses technology provides for us today. To me, living life eyes up means spending less time on my phone and more time pursuing passions, finding hobbies and making connections with others.