Why are Smartphones so Important in Daily Life?

Nowadays smartphone plays an important role in our life. It makes our life easier and more convenient. It provides many features and benefits for the various purposes of people. In the short film entitled “I Forgot My Phone” which created by Charlene deGuzman, the phone always takes precedence in all activities. The film opens and closes up with a scene that a woman lying in the bed stares silently at her boyfriend who is interested in his phone. The film’s scenes follow the woman’s activities without the phone through a day. However, her activities are often disrupted by someone who is engrossed by smartphone.

“I Forgot My Phone” short film makes us realize the negative effects on our health, real-life experience, and relationships because of the smartphone addiction. Firstly, smartphone addiction can cause health problems. Physical problems are one of the health concerns. When staring a phone for a long time, our eyes will be dried. Looking at the screen in hours also makes facial muscles stretchable. In addition, there will be painful neck and shoulder muscles while we are bending over our phones in wrong way. The other problem we need to consider when using smartphone at night is sleeplessness.

For example, in the final scene which a couple lying in the bed, while a woman turns off the light and goes to sleep, a man is still playing his phone in the dark. When we interact on social media or play a game on our phones, we are actively using our brain. It makes us difficult to fall asleep. Moreover, bright screen of the smartphone is the second factor that leading to sleeplessness. The contact with the artificial light before going to sleep can repress melatonin which regulates our sleep. It makes our brain think it is time to wake up, not to sleep. Losing sleep can cause some serious diseases like obesity, depression and diabetes.

Secondly, the obsession with using smartphone gradually prevents us living in the moments. It is consuming our lives. We even cannot go anywhere or do anything without our phones. We ignore the world around us by our phones. In one of the film scenes, while the woman tries to take pleasure in the sunrise, her fellow hiker is talking loudly on his phone. The other scene shows a little girl sitting on a playground swing is typing on her phone whereas the actress enjoys the atmosphere. Instead of experiencing about the beauty of the world around us, we just focus on our smartphones and forget how the nature is.

Furthermore, we really miss out on our real feelings about what is happening in front of us. Another pertinent part from the film shows the actress passing a couple on the beach; the man proposes to his girlfriend and records their engagement instead of appreciating their life-changing moment and romance. In other scenes, when the actress is at the concert, birthday party, and the comedy show, people are recording rather than listening, enjoying, and watching in person. We document our lives on smart phone and post pictures, videos about where we are and how we feel, but we actually do not live in real time wholeheartedly.

Therefore, the obsession leads us to miss out on our lives’ moments because we are too busy texting, checking notifications or social media experiences instead of actually living them. Finally, the overuse of smartphone can break down our relationships. We often use smart phone when doing activities with friends, family, or partners. This leads us to paying more attention on our phones than our beloved ones. For instance, in the short film, the actress is ignored by her friends who are on their phones at lunch and in the bowling game.

While she is trying to have a conversation with them, they didn’t even hear what she just said. When we just concentrate on our phones, they will have the feeling that our phones are more important than them. Besides that, using our phones while socializing with others can make us lose face -to -face interaction. When we are talking and the other focus on their phones, we are not able to have a connection and are prevented from building trust between each other because we do not have a face-to-face communication, especially eye contact.

Smart phone is a good device helping our life become more enjoyable like TVs and internet. However, we should take care how we use it. Our relationships, health, and real-life moments are more valuable than our phones. We need to power off our phones before bed time and put our phones away to get important things done. We also need to remember that: the most precious thing we can give for someone is our presence. Moreover, the real world is waiting for us to explore it, so do not waste our times for the smartphone.