I was recently at a friend’s office and a young lady stepped in for an Interview. Now, guess what she did half of the time? She kept fiddling with her phone, even while her would-be boss was having a chat with her. At some point, he had to interrupt her world by saying, “Madam, it would be nice if you kindly pay attention”. When she left after the completion of the interview, my friend told me point blank, “I cannot put up with this kind of attitude. She is already fired before I even employ her!” At that point, I decided that this is something I have to bring to tech users notice.
Technology is nice and cool, but it becomes a cause for concern when it becomes an addiction when you cannot control its use. When you are addicted to your phone, it literally takes control over you. I understand that, these days, it has become difficult for us to do without our phones, but you must always show other people respect.
I have developed and imbibed two basic smart phone rules, which I also call strategies, which I strictly follow to avoid embarrassing myself through the wrong use of my phone. Please find out how I use these two strategies below:
– Put off the phone or place it on silence: I always put off my phone or place it on silence when I am attending a meeting, event or religious gathering. I have done this consistently for the last couple of years and it has worked perfectly for me.
– Turn off notifications: Another strategy I adopt is that I turn off most notifications, especially those that come from social media, because that is a major source of distraction. There is no way in the world, I can keep up with all what is happening in the virtual world and yet deliver on my commitments in the real world. Yes, ring tones are good, but at certain points during the day, the vibrate mode is all you need and if your smartphone allows you to customize your vibration patterns, you can use that to ensure nothing important slips by. This is why I always say that it is one thing to invest in an expensive gadget and it is another thing to use it properly.
Finally, there was the news of a teenager who got killed by a train while fiddling with her phone, which is an extreme example of the ills of phone addiction. On a serious note, I believe that, if not controlled, excessive obsession with your smartphone might be unhealthy for normal human relationship.
What strategies do you adopt to ensure that your phone usage does not disturb your neighbor or distracts you from getting serious and important things done? Share with the community here.
In my opinion, I think users of smart phones should make it a habit not to always use their phones when having conversation with people, expecially when it’s official.
The younger generation is more guilty in this issue, human to human communication is at stake, we just need discipline to handle this
dominic you said it all,,, these younger generation will not hear advice.. they think you are purnishing them
yes oh… but most girls will not hear, they like whatsapping
This is a very serious issue. I raised an alarm when I started seeing female passengers on motor bikes chatting away on their phones! How convenient that is for them, I do not know! Those who have become addicted to it already would needto go through a rehabilitation exercise otherwise, there’s no way just reading an article can save them.
lol…. this same issue has killed pple, pinging while on bike
And then after all she would be hoping to be employed, it is such an issue that we need to deal with
The funny thing is most of the time they are on the phone they are doing nothing, they just need to have their hands on, and also she might not know that, what she is doing is a flaw until someone tells her, apart from the steps mentioned, one can also a buffer to receive important updates as at when desired
Good strategies but I think they could still be hard to put practice . It would be best to put it away completely. And yet they’re becoming more expedient every that passes.
Shalom you and I know that putting the phone away completely isn’t feasible, it all boils down to discipline and an extra supervision from a friend, I sometimes seize my friend’s phone for 1 hour before giving it back, so whenever am around she takes caution
lol
charity begins at home
I once told a guy who asked me what he could do to curb his phone addiction. I told him sincerely as he requested, to DISCARD it like really throw it off the balcony! It seemed funny but that was an honest suggestion,seeing that his efforts to control it were vain.
some pple will now take their phone like god… they serve it, without phone they can die. smh for those kind of pple
This is a big problem for most mobile phone users, especially smartphone users, I’m also guilty of phone addiction, I will make sure I use the strategies above to make sure my phone addiction level is decreased.
My advice to smartphone users out there is; the earlier you stop your phone addiction the better, because it can get to a point where you can’t control your addiction.
I cant even recall the last time i heard the ringtone of my phone and thats because of the excessive notifications from whatsapp especially. Am very grateful reading this topic, it really is for us. I hope we learn from this piece. Thanks.
that nice
for me my phone is always on silent/vibration
some pple in church their phone will be ringing, u will see them up balanced, even inside church
phone addition is a bad habit
Thanks for this topic, to me putting my phone in silent mode works a lot and sometimes i drop it somewhere far till am free to make use of it, that way i dont get distracted.
nice one bro….
I totally switch it off or put it on silent mode .
this is the right thing to do
Now that there are about 1.6 billion Facebook users only, tell me if this is really gonna work. Some people will just never be able to overcome it. Only the conscious ones will
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