Are You A Smartphone Addict?

Well, I am one!

When you will meet me, I may appear very normal, very regular to you. I have perfect manners, oh, well almost. I know when to laugh, what to say when you are sharing your child’s achievements in the potty training and when to simply listen.

And then a few minutes later, I’ll hear a ‘pure bell’ notification sound which emanates from my phone, oops smartphone and I’ll instantly reach for it. I’ll check the message that’s flashing on the screen. Aha! It’s an email news letter on ‘Natural Health News: What You Need to Know About the Mediterranean Diet’. I’ll open the newsletter and send it to the trash bin without reading it. Check a few tweets and then look up, to see that you are either frowning at me or have taken out your phone yourself and are fidgeting with it too.

If it is the latter, it is a godsend response for me. Because, this will give me a fab opportunity to see the number of likes and comments on my latest post on Facebook, forward some really silly jokes on WhatsApp or play some word game or smile at some funny tweets.

And God forbid, if I see you frowning, well, I have the grace to look sheepish and I do make an effort to carry forward our conversation. Another ‘pure bell’ notification, I grab my phone instantaneously…

Well, when the smartphone beckons, I have to go running to it!

I use my smartphone compulsively. Whether I am at the doctor’s waiting room, or at the airport, or in the bus, I have to use the various apps that I have downloaded. Last week, I was travelling in a bus on NH 8 which is a straight highway between Delhi and Jaipur. There are no twists, no turns, and the bus doesn’t stops anywhere and I have traveled on this highway a million times and still I had kept the Navigation App on, on my smartphone and continued to look at the blue moving arrow with fascination.

I can’t visit the loo without my phone. No, I am not expecting some exciting email about a ‘5 million package job offer’ or a message regarding ‘your account is credited with INR 10000000’ during that time, but it’s just to make the best use of the available free time!

My phone is always in my sight, within my reach. I carry its charger always in my bag and look for charging points wherever I am. I remember, once, the phone’s battery died on me and I nearly died of anxiety and boredom.

I am ashamed to realize that I should be giving undivided attention to my spouse than to smile at the tweets of some strangers. I am embarrassed to see myself bumping against a parked car as I was texting while walking!

I am amazed that how a sensible, mature person like me has become a slave to this smartphone in such a short span of time.

I must realize that there is a beautiful and a wonderful world outside my smartphone and I must discipline …. one second… I’ll be back in a moment. Ah! I had to check the smiley that I received in response to my PJ from a friend…. myself and curb my urge to touch my smartphone.

Are you addicted to your smartphone!

Linking this post to the Ultimate Blog Challenge and October’s NaBloPoMo.

Images Courtesy: Google Images. Images are linked to their original source.