[Student Voices] How I Was Hypnotized by My Smartphone
Published: 16 Dec. 2024, 11:17
Updated: 17 Dec. 2024, 15:32
Jihu Chun, Hongik University Elementary School
by Jihu Chun, Hongik University Elementary School
When most people think about smartphones, they think: information, communication, and fun. But as I started to discover the effects of smartphones, I thought: monstrous, hypnotizing, witchlike.
Soon after I got my first smartphone, I found games in the app store like Chrome Dino, where you play as a dinosaur that tries to avoid prickly cactuses and flying monsters. I also downloaded Roblox, where you play as a teenager that tries to jump from one tower to another without falling. As I played, I felt like nothing existed between me and the game. I was in a different world, full of elation: my breath came quickly, my heart raced, and hours flew by like minutes. “Yes!” I often exclaimed. However, when I had to stop playing, I was frustrated and annoyed. There was always another level, always something more to do in the game. It seemed like the game was never ending—and that it would keep pulling me back in.
Ding! I was doing my homework when I noticed a message from one of my closest friends. I quickly responded to him and then started to chat with some of my other friends about their fun plans for the weekend or the delicious food they had for lunch. As the hours passed, we continued using rapid communication like “jk lol” and lots of emojis. Then I took some photos with an app that put silly effects on my face, such as gigantic googly eyes or a reindeer mask with funny antlers. Next, I started asking some absurd questions to Siri:
Hey Siri, want to fight?
Hey Siri, what will I look like when I’m 100?
Hey Siri, why is your face just a ball with stripes inside?
Suddenly, I realized what had happened. My phone had hypnotized me.
A few days later, I was at my math academy when I heard a ding from my phone. I controlled my urge to click the screen and see what it was about. Ding. I tried to ignore it. I was barely holding myself together when I heard another ding. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was not able to resist the temptation. I quickly looked at my phone, then turned it completely off and put it in my bag.
They were just notifications from my gaming app.
Each time the smartphone dinged, it was like a bomb obliterated all my concentration. After a few more episodes of getting distracted during a test and a science project, and then getting distracted during an important PowerPoint presentation, I started to worry that having a smartphone was a trap. As it happened, my math scores did go down. Sometimes I thought, “I wish I didn’t have this stupid phone!” But I couldn’t stop using it. I was hypnotized.
A few weeks ago, I came upon a possible solution to this problem: “dumb phones.” Dumb phones can’t access the internet and are not powerful enough to play most games, so they cause fewer distractions. One of the UK’s largest mobile networks, EE, recently recommended that children under 11 be given “non-smart” phones without social media apps like TikTok and YouTube. Last month, Eton College, one of the top private schools in the world, banned students from having smartphones. Instead, they will all be issued dumb phones. These days, there are some cool, minimalist devices by dumb phone startups, like the Light Phone, which has an e-ink screen that’s better for your eyes. According to a recent article in The Economist, “Dumb phones are making a comeback.”
If we want to rescue our grades from harm and free ourselves from the hypnotic effects of games, social media, and constant communication, dumb phones are the answer. I think my mom still has a flip phone that she used about ten years ago in a box somewhere. I’m going to go look for it right now.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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