To put it simply, a woman in Hong Kong had a nervous breakdown after her smartphone died in the subway. Voila’: yet another case of technology addiction.
The video is funny. And scary.
The footage uploaded to Facebook by Akira Chan on Tuesday, features a woman screaming in frustration and wailing as her phone died. The video went viral and has been viewed on the social media more than 1 million times.
Is this what happens when technology addiction takes over your life?
We are all a messy tangle of smartphones and laptops. Finding a healthy tech-balance is easier said than done. Researchers have found that withdrawal symptoms experienced by young people deprived of technology are similar to those felt by drug addicts or smokers going “cold turkey”.
Students who participated to a study went through significant mental and physical distress when forced to “unplug” from technology for an entire –ever ending, awful- day.
A Plugged World
It’s not surprising that college students across the globe admit being “addicted” to modern technology.
According to the University of Maryland a “clear majority” of almost 1,000 university students, interviewed at 12 campuses in countries like Britain, the U.S. and China, were unable to voluntarily avoid their gadgets for one full day.
Technology addiction: feeling like a failure without it
Another study from the Bournemouth University, found that one in five young people aged 17-23, reported feelings of withdrawal akin to addiction when giving up their mobile phones, the internet and social networking sites. More than one in 10 admitted being left confused and “feeling like a failure”.
“Students talked about how scary it was, how addicted they were,” Prof Susan Moeller, who led the research, said. “They expected the frustration. But they didn’t expect to have the psychological effects, to be lonely, to be panicked, the anxiety, literally heart palpitations”.
New poll suggests that we check our phones more than we think
A new Gallup poll found that about half of U.S. smartphone owners check their devices several times an hour or more frequently. 11% check it every few minutes and 41% a few times an hour.
Even when we try to enjoy some time off, our smartphones come to life, and so does our technology addiction.
“My BlackBerry runs my life,” Jenn Hoffman, Phoenix-based CEO of The J Brand Group recently said.
Her boyfriend calls her laptop, which she brings to bed every night, “the other man.”
Are we so different from Hoffman or that woman in Hong Kong? The 24/7 technology addiction is shaping our lives.
Are you, too, addicted to technology?
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