Please don't ignore a real Person in Favour of a Screen

While I have been writing about social media the last days and expressed yesterday that I really do like it as well, I will today tell you about one thing I really don’t like but which is not specific to social media but mobiles, tablets and the like: I don’t like having a conversation with someone whose attention is on an electronic device in his hand!

I understand how incredibly practical modern technical instruments have made it to communicate with people thousands of kilometers away. It is great that you can message someone and get a reply the next second. It is also nice that these little gadgets have become devices of entertainment for hours. But, in the spirit of yesterday’s blog post, real life is better! Real life is more important! Please don’t ignore a real person sitting in front of you in favour of the screen in your hand!

The problem is that the makers of these gadgets and all the software and apps which goes onto them want to achieve exactly this: they want to engage you so much that you cannot do anything else but stare at the screen. You are supposed to feel an inner urge not to put that thing aside. If this is the case, they won. You will buy what they sell you and you will lose a part of your real life because you involve your mind into their inventions rather than looking at the people around you.

It has long ago been in discussion that video games create an addiction for children. Wait, not only for children, also for adults! I have always been in favour of keeping children away from video games so that they don’t get addicted – something which would impact their whole adult life as well!

Nowadays however, it is normal that already young teenagers get a mobile. It is a smartphone, so that they can also use their social networks. On a smartphone, they automatically have access to an insane number of apps, so that they can play games the whole day long without anybody saying anything about it! Gaming, messaging, sharing pictures, taking pictures and more – the whole day long.

Apart from the negative effect on health – just think of posture, eyesight, lack of movement – there is this big problem of losing the connection to reality. This is what is the case when you sit in front of a person and don’t ever look into this person’s eyes because at the same time you are checking your messages, answering or, even worse, playing a game.

Get back to Reality, be real, live a real life and be in contact with others!