By Dr. Sudheer Babu Punuri
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP
What is the first thing many of us reach for after waking up? For millions of people, it is no longer a glass of water, a newspaper or even a cup of tea. It is the mobile phone.
We check messages, look at notifications and scroll through social media. We tell ourselves that it will take only five minutes. But those five minutes can easily become thirty minutes or even an hour.
The smartphone has undoubtedly transformed our lives. It helps us communicate, learn, work, travel, make payments and access information within seconds. For students, professionals, farmers, patients and families separated by distance, it has become an extremely useful tool.
But somewhere along the way, the phone has changed from being a device we use into a device we constantly need.
Are we using the phone, or is the phone using us?
A warning from Shakeela
A recent experience shared by actress Shakeela has brought the physical consequences of excessive smartphone use into public discussion.
After undergoing neck surgery, she spoke about spending long periods playing games and watching videos on her phone, including while lying in an awkward position. She has since urged people, particularly parents, to be careful about excessive phone use.
Her experience should not be taken to mean that mobile-phone use alone causes cervical problems or that everyone who uses a phone extensively will face serious health problems. Neck conditions can have many causes. However, spending long periods in poor postures, keeping the neck bent towards a screen and remaining in one position for hours can certainly contribute to physical discomfort and strain.Sometimes, the problem is not the phone itself. It is the way we use it.
When distraction becomes dangerous
The consequences of phone use can sometimes be much more immediate.A tragic incident near Jalandhar recently highlighted the dangers of mobile-phone distraction. A man was reportedly walking near railway tracks while talking on his mobile phone. He apparently failed to notice an approaching train and was fatally struck.
A phone conversation may last only a few minutes. But a moment of distraction can have irreversible consequences.The same warning applies to driving.
A message can wait. A phone call can wait.A notification can wait.Life cannot.
No social-media update or telephone conversation is more important than the safety of a human being.
Our children and the digital world
Perhaps the most difficult question concerns our children.
A smartphone can be an excellent educational tool. Children can learn mathematics, science, languages, coding and many other skills through digital resources. But the same device can also provide endless entertainment through games, short videos and social media.
The concern becomes serious when entertainment turns into dependence.
A disturbing incident in Ghaziabad earlier this year involved three sisters who died after falling from the ninth floor of their apartment building. Police investigations examined, among other factors, their heavy involvement with online gaming and their family circumstances.
We should be extremely careful about drawing a simple conclusion that a particular game or mobile phone caused such a tragedy. Such heartbreaking incidents are complex and can involve several emotional, social and family factors.
But the incident should still make parents pause and ask:
Do we really know what our children are doing online?
Giving a child a smartphone is easy. Understanding the child’s digital world is much harder.
Parents also need to lead by example. Telling children to reduce phone use while adults themselves spend hours scrolling sends a contradictory message.
Look around us
There was a time when a family sitting together meant conversation.Today, a family may sit around the same dining table while one person watches a video, another replies to messages and a child plays a game. Everyone is physically together, but their attention is somewhere else. We have never been more digitally connected. Yet sometimes, we seem to be becoming less connected personally.
Go to a restaurant, railway station or waiting room and look around. People sitting next to one another are often absorbed in their own digital worlds.
We can speak to someone thousands of kilometres away while ignoring the person sitting beside us.
That is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the smartphone age.
“Just five minutes”
The difficulty with smartphone dependence is that it often does not feel like dependence.
We pick up the phone to check one message.One message becomes a video. One video becomes another.
Then comes social media, another notification and another recommendation.Before we realise it, an hour has passed.
The problem is often not one long session but the accumulation of small sessions throughout the day — five minutes after waking up, ten minutes during breakfast, another twenty minutes during a break and another hour before sleeping.
Individually, these moments appear harmless. Together, they can consume a surprisingly large part of our day.
We don’t need to reject technology
The answer is not to throw away our smartphones.
These devices have brought enormous benefits. A farmer can receive weather information, a student can attend an online lecture, a patient can communicate with a doctor, a traveller can find a route and families can remain connected across continents.
The same technology can therefore be both useful and harmful.
The difference lies in how we use it.
We can start with simple habits: keep phones away during meals, create some screen-free family time, take regular breaks, encourage children to play outdoors, avoid prolonged phone use while lying down, turn off unnecessary notifications and never use a phone while driving.
Whenever we unlock the phone, perhaps we should ask ourselves one simple question:
“Why am I picking it up?”
If there is a genuine reason, use it.If there is no reason, put it back.
Technology should serve us
The smartphone is one of the most powerful everyday technologies we have ever possessed. It has brought communication, information, education and entertainment into the palm of our hands.
But convenience can quietly become dependence.
We do not need to become enemies of technology. We need to become wiser users of it.
Perhaps the real measure of digital progress is not how many hours we remain connected to our screens, but whether technology helps us live better, healthier and more meaningful lives.
The next time we sit with our parents, children, spouse or friends, perhaps we can put the phone aside for a while.
The next time we go for a walk, perhaps we can look at the world instead of the screen.
And tonight, before watching one more reel, perhaps we can ask ourselves whether that reel is more important than the person sitting beside us.
The phone should remain a tool in our hands — not a master in our lives.
After all, the people around us deserve our attention too, not just our online status.
