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When
my friend, who was one of the first IPhone owners in my secondary school, told
me that using the smartphone can be addictive, I thought she was exaggerating.
However, when I actually owned an IPhone, I realized how true her words were.
When I had my first IPhone in 2010 after my O-Level Examinations have ended, I
started to use it more frequently than my previous phone and gradually, I
become addicted to using the smartphone. My IPhone has seeped into my life so
much that I have become a slave to my smartphone to the point where I carry it
along with me almost everywhere I go because I would feel naked without it in
my possession otherwise. Needless to say, my IPhone addiction has drastically
changed my habits at home.
As
a result of my IPhone addiction, I have been sleeping later than before.
Sleeping
at 10p.m. on the dot every day is unfortunately a thing of the past for me. Now,
I have a bad habit of sleeping at 12 a.m. and the latest being 4a.m. My IPhone is
the last thing I use before I sleep every night and the first thing my hand
grabs every morning when I wake up. Even when I have already laid on my bed, I
still use my IPhone with the lights off in my room at night. Even though I know
this is bad for my eyesight, I still do it. Due to a lack of sleep, I would constantly
feel tired the next morning and my work performance is lowered as a result
leading to a poorer quality of work. As such, my addiction to IPhone has caused
me to have fewer hours of sleep.
Because of my IPhone addiction, my tendency to procrastinate
has worsened. I used to be a very hardworking student who would start to
complete my homework the minute I arrive home. However, now when I reach home,
I would immediately start using my IPhone because I wanted to take a break
after a tiring day at school. Before I knew it, a five-minute break had turned
into an hour-long one thus leading to a delay in the completion of my homework.
As I rushed to complete my homework, the quality of my work has deteriorated
due to lesser time spent on it. In addition, when I have important tests or
examinations to study, I would delay the studying time unintentionally as I
would be using my IPhone to pass the time away. At worst times, I would
actually start studying hours before the test itself, making me less prepared
for the test which leads to lesser marks. Afterwards, I would regret not putting
a lot of effort but I would then quickly forget about it, reverting to my bad
habits and making the same mistakes like a vicious cycle. The procrastination
takes a turn for the worse when I even delayed my meal times to the point where
I only had one meal a day. Nowadays, I experience gastric pains more frequently
and the pain has worsened as time passes. As such, I procrastinated my meal
times and homework times as a result of my IPhone addiction.
Spending too much time with my IPhone has led to a
decrease in face-to-face interactions with my family. Back then, I would spend
my time in the living room chatting with my parents and brother for long hours
as I would miss them when I was at school. However, now I would stay cooped up
in my room using my IPhone, preferring solitude. I would bring my phone with me
everywhere in the house and be constantly using my IPhone which leads to me not
being focused of my surroundings. When my parents are actually talking to me, it
would take them a while to capture my attention and I would look up from using
my IPhone with a confused look as I would not be paying attention to their
entire conversation. However, the smartphone addiction is not exclusive to me
as my other family members would also be engaged in playing with their
respective smartphones while we are conversing so we would not be giving our
full attention to each other when we talk. This is not good as it is important
to maintain eye contact when people are conversing as a lack of eye contact
shows a half-hearted conversation. That said, I have been spending lesser
quality time with my family members due to my IPhone addiction.
As a result of my IPhone addiction, my performance level,
my health and my relationship with my family members have been adversely
affected so I have to put an end to that. Since I am aware of how unhealthy my
IPhone addiction is, I should set boundaries whenever I use my IPhone. I should
learn to control my urges to use my IPhone when there are other more important
and productive things to do. I would start by deleting all the games and social
media applications in my IPhone, and gradually, I would stop over-relying on my
IPhone.
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