I actually have two stories for today and for my first piece, I want to talk about cell phones, the big ugly file cabinet that we decorate with a 'case' like it's some type of baby who might fall off a cliff if we step on a pebble. Mobile phones are everywhere and nearly everyone has one. They are essential to everyday life and according to Statista, 46% of people who own a smartphone are on it for nearly 6 hours a day, every day. That is a near objectively absurd amount to be on a phone. Plus, with hacking becoming more and more common, along with social media dumpster fires blazing into a near monopolistic hold on people and the posts that influence millions every second and more and more deaths due to texting and driving, I thought it would be good to answer a few questions: why we depend on phones for everything, how tech companies are capitalizing on our addiction, how people are responding, and what we can do with this issue going forward. 

Let's start with the first question and that is why smartphones are so addictive. This is actually harder and more debatable than you might realize. Over the years psychologists have regularly stated that the "interaction" releases a chemical called dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is released when a moment of pleasure or enjoyment occurs. The vast majorities of studies over 35 years have regularly listed video games and consuming food, drugs, and alcohol along with many other actions at the forefront of the list. But mobile tech is reaching an unprecedented level of addiction that no other substance has ever gained close to. By 2026, according to analysts from Samsung and Google, the amount of people to have cell phones is going to be 7.69 BILLION people. 7.69 billion is absolutely ridiculous. There are 7.753 billion people in the world right now and the projection is to be near 7.83 billion by 2030. That means in just 4 years 98% of people with have some sort of mobile device. I can't believe that fact exists and I'm the one writing this article! Anyway, I digress back to the original question on why smartphones are so addictive. There is a level of confidence that some say can only be found in a phone. That is interesting for many reasons, most importantly that people are more comfortable being behind a screen rather than talking to a human being. The human mind craves attention, but only to a degree. We enjoy some form social interaction, or at least the majority of us do, but then we want to retreat. We need isolation. And that is the key to why we love phones. It distracts us from objective reality, and it takes minimal brain capacity. It gives a sense of control and freedom without interacting with people. 

The next question concerns tech companies. You know of them: Meta, Google, Twitter, and the megaton: Apple. These companies have made billions by creating platforms for which cell phones are the hosts. Billions log onto Twitter every day to post and chat among each other like bees in a hive. The stunning realization that 1.3 billion people are on Instagram is absolutely mind boggling. Meta, formerly known as an actually good tech company name Facebook, permeates into 2.9 billion people's lives every day. Google is used by practically everyone and Apple and Samsung make up like 5/6 of the United States' mobile phone market. Every single one of these companies market their products to all of us collectively with not much federal oversight. They rake in so much money obviously due to advertisers on their sites. Advertisers use techniques like recommending search results and blogs to make money off of you. It is absolutely fascinating that there is so much freedom with marketing whatever you want on wherever you want it. But nonetheless Twitter and Instagram and TikTok are getting loaded from our usage. So here is an interesting idea, if we all stopped social media, 'Big Tech' would go 'bye-bye'. That is kind of a fun idea to throw around. This also weaves into the next question: how people are responding. Some like the picture below are protesting the big monopoly of Facebook. But to be frank, the response couldn't be more underwhelming. The majority of people simply don't give it a second thought and most politicians go by everyday spewing their thoughts into these corporations not thinking for a second on the secret power they have. But the fact of the matter is that we need to demand change to the oligopoly of social media. We are at a tipping point of real change but for some reason we never dare exceed it for some unknown reason. We depend on it to make us whole, and it is in my opinion slowly killing our culture. 

Finally, what are we going to do moving forward? Objectively, we need better regulation on these companies, but that should be the bare minimum. Protests are a great start to demanding change to these massive, monolithic giants that have dominated over the small guy for too long. The addiction and loss of face-face interaction will only get worse if we don't demand some sort of change. And the sad thing about this is that I don't have an answer. I know that some of you might be screaming at me for basically lecturing you on mobile phone addiction and then not giving you an answer, which sounds like a parent telling their toddler to stop being mad, and the toddler asking how to not be mad while the parent puts on their headphones and gets in their car and drives away. Something needs to be done so we can deal with this impending crisis. Addiction is a dangerous road because it can lead to some terrifying destinations. Social media companies need to address this and fast. We don't have all day. They need to stop being silent and issuing politicized statements but make actual change. Personal change is an individual choice, and I think as the next generation we can breakthrough this near-depressing cycle and move towards spending our time doing different activities.