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Mobile Dependency: Into the Danger Zone

  • Writer: Kelly Hendrick
    Kelly Hendrick
  • Jun 25, 2024
  • 3 min read

Updated: Jul 6, 2024


I don’t know about you, but my phone stopped being a piece of technology years ago. Now, it’s practically an appendage, or more accurately a member of the family. It’s replaced a lot of things in my daily life: my checkbook, my alarm clock, the fold-up map in my car, my digital camera, a radio, my personal calendar, a travel planner. Sometimes I even use it for its intended purpose—texts and phone calls. Perhaps one of the most significant items it's replaced, however, is our news source. Newspapers, cable TV, and subscription magazines can now all be accessed through the little black brick in our hands. All of that information at our fingertips has become standard, even expected, but it should come with a warning label. Mobile dependency is very, very real.





New Societal Expectations

The psychological aftermath of social media use is well documented, like developed mood disorders and pervasive low self-esteem, but these are inevitable byproducts of the always-on mindset. Not only has mobile technology taken a toll on mental health, but it has also taken a toll on communication, both with personal relationships and with global ones as well. When it comes to personal relationships, one study found that seventy percent of their survey respondents positively ranked preferring to “stay at home,” more inclined to play on their cell phone—alone—in their free time (XuanZhu, 2021).


In another part of the survey, they found that over half of the respondents agreed in some way that they used their cell phones to escape reality and avoid problems. On a global scale, members expect usernames so that they can post whatever content they want with the freedom of anonymity, and subsequently, they have come to expect no consequences if they cross a line. We rely on smartphones for all aspects of our lives—work, school, personal—and therefore set high expectations, looking to them for “short-lived pleasures” and escaping negative emotions.




A Cultural Shift

Using cell phones for everything obviously enforces reliance on mobile technology. Because of this reliance, brains may be working overtime to stop themselves from constantly monitoring phones for notifications, contributing to “brain drain” (Ruggeri, 2023). With this inevitably comes distraction and unproductivity, but the more useful that phones become, the more they’re needed. In addition to the amount of time consumers spend entertaining themselves on their phones, including in bed, waiting in lines, sitting in traffic, and in the bathroom, they have also transitioned to using their cell phones for news and current affairs.


With this has come one of the most dangerous aspects of mobile dependency: echo chambers. Cell phones track all kinds of user data, from what they buy to phrases they search to content they read. Using algorithms, readers then have customized content appearing as ads or suggested articles. When apps like Reddit only show users the content they think they’ll like, users begin to only see content they like, thereby “shackling” themselves to their existing perceptions (XuanZhu, 2021). This serves to strengthen their own opinions, isolate them from opposing viewpoints, and skew their representation of the real world. Worse, this lack of exposure to conflicting information can make users unable to even tolerate differing opinions. It’s not hard to infer that this has played a part in the current divisive landscape.


Clearly mobile phones have contributed positively to society as well, but their power over our lives cannot be understated. And, as Spider-Man's Uncle Ben famously said: with great power, there must also come great responsibility.




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