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Smartphone obsession is in fact a growing problem in Canada and the United States. Researchers are now seeing a pattern of smartphone addiction that could end up in disastrous consequences.
Smartphone obsession is a problem
It is not about the smartphone itself but the entirety of it, where it has become one of the many reasons why there is a marked increase in traffic accidents as a result of distracted driving.
You might be surprised when you crunch up the numbers leading to this behavioural malady where a recent poll shows that a typical American checks their smartphone once every 6.5 minutes, that’s 150 times in a day.
Another study even showed worse, double the number of times for the previous report where most users are checking it as much as 300 times per day, which is no less than 18 times per hour for an average 16 hours of waking time.
One alarming statistic is that 53 percent of those aged 15 to 30 years claimed they would rather give up their sense of taste than part with their smartphones.
Mobile generation is changing the culture
In a study published by the Journal of Information Systems Applied Research, scientists from the Robert Morris University reveals that mobile technology has so influenced Americans that a staggering 80 to 90 percent of drivers are using their cellular phones while driving.
The United States Department of Transportation also reported an alarming 1.6 million car crashes each year that has been responsible for the deaths of 6,000 people and injured more than 500,000.
With the mounting number of smartphone usage texting while driving is six times more likely to cause an accident than driving under the influence.
Incontrovertible data
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that traffic deaths in 2015 went up by 7.7 percent in the United States, many of those cases involved were due to distracted driving.
There are approximately 660,000 drivers all over America using their cellphones or manipulating a device while driving, at any given time. This number has remained steady since 2010.
A lot of traffic accidents involving distracted driving often result from a split second glance into a smartphone or gadget display that causes one to lose focus on the road and could result to an accident.
Distracted driving caused by smartphone addiction
While people believe that talking on the phone, texting or checking on social media while driving is dangerous, many if not most people still do it.
It definitely addictive condition that results to distracted driving which many smartphone users may deny doing, but that scientists prove to be triggered by a hormone in the brain that strongly urges you to do so.
This is a result of the addictive nature of smartphones that causes the brain to instinctively react to a notification whether it is a text message or an update on Facebook or Twitter, according to David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet Technology and Addiction.
“The dopamine reward centers are the same centers that have to do with pleasure from eating, pleasure from sex and procreation, pleasure from drugs and alcohol,” Greenfield said. “This reward circuitry is as old as time and if we didn’t have it, we probably wouldn’t exist as a species.”
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