At what point did smartphones and other gadgets evolve from conveniences to vital organs? We need to be vigilant that our electronic servants do not become our masters.
In a Harris-Decima poll, 42 per cent of smartphone users surveyed said they keep their phone within reach 90 to 100 per cent of the time. Three-quarters said they take their phones with them to the bathroom. More than half said they check their phones at least once an hour.
Those figures were gathered in an online poll, so the level of attachment to smartphones might not be as high in the general population, but it鈥檚 difficult to go anywhere these days without seeing people mesmerized by little glowing screens. Even along Victoria鈥檚 spectacular Inner Harbour, you can always find those more entranced by the digital world than by the beauty around them.
The more people pay attention to their gadgets, the less aware they are of the world around them. That presents safety problems 鈥� texting while driving, for example 鈥� as well as reducing real face-to-face conversation.
And that鈥檚 just one aspect of human interaction with the digital world. Experts worry about the hold video games can have on some people鈥檚 lives. What might start as a stress-reliever or something to relieve the tedium of a bus ride can become a compulsion, interfering with work and family life.
Toronto psychiatrist Bruce Ballon said it can cause real problems. He developed a gambling, gaming and Internet-use clinic at Toronto鈥檚 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health after he recognized the similarities between Internet and video games and gambling.
Do you get anxious when you haven鈥檛 checked Facebook for at least 20 minutes? Do you feel crippled without your smartphone? You might have a problem.
It鈥檚 no laughing matter. A Pennsylvania hospital recently opened an in-patient Internet addiction program, the first of its kind in North America. The 10-day residential program accepts four adult patients at a time working to recover from what the program鈥檚 facilitators see as a debilitating dependence on the Internet.
They undergo psychological evaluations, group therapy and 鈥� here鈥檚 the cruel part 鈥� a 72-hour digital detox period. That deprivation can be harrowing, said program founder Dr. Kimberly Young, leading to depression, irritability and even violence.
It starts young. Tablets and their like were ranked among the top Christmas gifts for children this year. Tablets have not been around long enough for us to know definitively what the effects will be on kids鈥� development, but experts are concerned.
Many devices and apps are touted as being educational, but that should be taken with a grain of salt. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Seattle Children鈥檚 Hospital, says educational games have some limited educational value if they prompt children to interact with the device, but parents need to be sure the games are not replacing important activities such as sleeping, reading or interacting with adults. New York pediatric psychologist Rahil Briggs says too much screen time can slow language development for younger children and impede social development for older children.
Smartphones, tablets, computers and the Internet are powerful tools, and few would advocate living without them, but if you feel you can鈥檛, you might be headed for trouble.
Star Trek movies and TV shows have featured the Borg, an alien race bent on assimilating every other race by turning them into beings that were partly biological, partly mechanical, all connected to the 鈥渉ive mind,鈥� all thinking alike, acting alike, looking alike. In Star Trek, such assimilation was painful, and the Borg were to be feared and avoided.
In real life, we seem far too eager for that kind of assimilation.
