Essay Sample on People's Addiction to Their Phones

Introduction

In the recent past, the world continues witnessing technological innovation, which plays a crucial role in shaping human behavior. It is common to see individuals migrating to at least one social media platform that serves as a communication tool and a platform for advertising new products and services. The social media platforms play a crucial role in shaping human behavior and how people interact daily. The prevalent behavioral norm is social media platforms’ use to interact and communicate with friends, family, and workmates. Nearly every individual using the internet is developing an addiction to at least one social media platform. Consequently, it is now becoming a common phenomenon to see people checking their phones regularly. The phone has become a de facto means of communication among peers, workmates, and family members.

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The prevalence of social media usage is causing people to limit their physical interaction as they make virtual communication their daily reality. Surprisingly, many psychologists find it puzzling that even the population born in the era of no internet is now using social media to communicate. This essay investigates the psychological elements that make people addicted to their phones as a means of accessing the internet and connecting with friends.

Behavior Observation

The proliferation of technology in the recent past caused many innovators to develop numerous social media platforms such as Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram – that enable people to communicate and share their experiences. Unfortunately, recent studies and experiences from many people suggest a worrying trend in which people seem to have become addicted to these technologies (Zhitomirsky-Geffet & Blau, 2016). A keen observation shows that phone users can access social media at a frequency of about thirty minutes. In other instances, one can observe that individuals will not stay for more than ten minutes before checking their phones. It is probably the urge to see the posts and messages from other people prompting them to check their phones regularly.

It is common to see people alighting from the commuter bus, train, taxis, or even personal cars, and the first thing they will look at is their phones. Every individual wants to become updated on any trending issues currently happening around the world (Zhitomirsky-Geffet & Blau, 2016). Additionally, some people check their phones regularly to check if they have new messages or times to access the internet just for the fun of it. As people continue delving into the latest technology as their means of communication, many usually lose their physical, social skills necessary for significant interactions. People usually rush to their phones when they have a new experience to share with their peers on an online platform. The shared experience can be either something negative or positive, which allows people to comment.

Many people are usually emotionally excited when using their phones. For instance, if a person passes through a place and sees two people fighting or quarreling, their first reaction would be to reach out to their phones and record a video for them to share with other people. Sometimes emotions painful emotions usually drive people to take a video and share an awful act with the rest of the world. A good example is the scene of George Floyd that took place in the United States, resulting in a fatality (Hill et al., 2020). When observers realized that they were nothing they could, too, after observing the police brutality, they opted to use their phones to record a video of the event that became a trending topic globally. Therefore, one can suggest that the reflex action to use the phone usually occurs when an individual is in a frame of mind that exhibits excitement, fear, and anger. However, there are scenarios whereby an individual checks their phone subconsciously. The addiction to smartphones has become a ritualistic habit that makes people look at their phones immediately after waking up or late at night.

The frequent usage of phones has become people’s lifestyle since the device enables them to access breaking news, trend topics on the internet, and share their experiences with friends. People’s addiction to their phones erodes effective communication and physical interaction among peers and family members.

Concept Identification

Researchers are now grappling with the fact that all the age group ranging from the adolescent, young adults and older people are both struggling with smartphone addiction. Many psychologists believe that the factors driving people’s addiction to their smartphones fall under Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, including safety, love and belongingness, and esteem needs (Li et al., 2019). Most people usually struggle to fulfill these needs by delving into technology usage to the point that it becomes a daily ritual.

The introverted nature of most individuals and low emotional stability usually make people develop very low self-esteem. Thus, such factors usually predispose an individual to become addicted to technologies such as smartphones and computers since it helps them communicate with the rest of the world without any physical fear (Li et al., 2019). The main underlying factor that drives people with low self-esteem to get addicted to their phones is the need to communicate with the rest of the world. Such individuals usually find a sense of belonging and identification when using smartphones as a means of communication. Such experiences make individuals, especially adolescents, become completely antisocial since they tend to spend most of their time on their phones.

Low self-esteem usually gives rise to emotional insecurity since most culprits usually struggle with self-identity (Li et al., 2019). Thus, many people usually use smartphones to access social media platforms – as a way of fulfilling the emotional need of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Consequently, people will tend to hide behind smartphones to connect with people they are interested in, hence fulfilling their emotional security (Clark et al., 2020). There are also scenarios in which people will use their smartphones to take pictures and post them on Instagram and Facebook. The likes and comments that people will receive on the posted pictures will make the individuals emotionally secure.

Psychologists identify as the driving factor to smartphone addiction to fulfill the love and belongingness need. Individuals from all the age groups usually struggle with a sense of belonging and love (Clark et al., 2020). People love to identify themselves with a particular set of groups. For instance, there are those individuals who love identifying themselves with the life of celebrities such as footballers and musicians. These individuals usually spend most of their time on smartphones to access social media content posted by celebrities. Developing interpersonal relationships with people usually predisposes people to smartphone addiction as a phone or connecting to a particular group of people. Additionally, there are those individuals who like mimicking the characters of particular individuals; thus, they tend to spend most of their time on social media following the content that interests them. Consequently, one ends up getting addicted to smartphones without even realizing it.

Concept Application

The human need to fulfill Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is why most psychology researchers connect with smartphone addiction. In most instances, children with poor parental background usually develop complications such as anxiety, depression, and other antisocial behavior (Li et al., 2019, p. 4). The advent of technology serves as solace for such a group of children since it creates a good platform for them to interact without thinking of their low self-esteem. Smartphones also allow such individuals to hide behind a gadget while airing their displeasure and anger towards society. The use of phones makes it easy for people with low self-esteem to bully others on the internet, which they cannot do when interacting physically (Li et al., 2019). When an individual interacts with a group of people on an online platform, they tend to forget about their low self-esteem issue – and air their views without fearing. The proliferation of technology is a haven for low self-esteem; individuals find their identity and connect with people.

Additionally, other life factors, such as the need to fulfill emotional security, usually make people resort to smartphones to connect with the rest of the world. For example, people like taking their pictures and videos and posting them on social media platforms. When such pictures get positive comments from most groups on an online platform, the individuals who posted them get some sense of affirmation about their physical appearances. Additionally, some people have fragile emotions, which makes them seek attention on an online platform. Surprisingly, individuals who seek other people’s attention on an online platform might feel very hurt if they find any negative comments about themselves. Individuals seek emotional security when individuals try to connect with a particular group of people, such as celebrities, to find a sense of belonging. All in all, the search for emotional security pushes individuals to the level of becoming addicted to their smartphones as they seek to find fulfillment and attention from the public.

Lastly, the need to find love and belongingness pushes individuals to find solace in their smartphones. The norm is particularly common for adolescents who did not receive sufficient parental love during their childhood. Consequently, such people tend to look for love and a sense of belonging in the wrong places like social media using their smartphones. These individuals usually have a habit of trusting strangers they meet on social media platforms, and they will spend most of their time on the phone texting and communicating with these people. Additionally, the need to belong to conversations and interactions in people’s daily lives makes people keep abreast of the trending topics, thus identifying with the current conversation on the internet and society. Ultimately, many people get addicted to their phones as they continue struggling to fulfill Maslow’s need for love and belongingness.

Evaluations

In as much as psychologists try to use Maslow’s self-esteem need, safety needs, and love and belonging need to explain people’s addiction to their phones – the research is significantly limited. Psychologists’ research fails to explain the high percentage of people who seem to have become addicted to their phones. The research also mainly focuses on adolescents and young people, but it fails to explain the adults’ addiction to their phones. There are people with high self-esteem and emotional security and an abundance of love, yet such people spent a lot of their time on the phone. Therefore, there is a need to conduct sufficient research on the issue, such as people’s social lives, before concluding conclusive reasons that make people addicted to their phones.

Conclusion

Psychologists are becoming puzzled by the rising number of people who seem to have become addicted to their phones. Most researchers suggest that the urge to fulfill Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, such as love and belonging, self-esteem, and security, is the addiction factor. However, many people come from various age groups who seem to have become addicted to their phones. Therefore research needs to look at other factors like social interactions so that reasonable psychologists explanation to the phenomenon.