It’s Getting Harder To Live Without A Smartphone, And That’s A Massive Problem

Slowly, the infrastructure to live without a smartphone is disappearing in the West. Thanks to societal changes made during the pandemic-induced lockdowns of 2020, many temporary adjustments — QR code menus, digital boarding passes — have become permanent.

Nowadays it’s rare to go to a restaurant without grabbing your phone for access to a menu or for ordering takeout. Some concert venues actually offer free access to their menus and take-out options. Require Guests can show their tickets using their mobile devices. My Washington, D.C. apartment building allows tenants to open doors via Bluetooth technology using their mobile devices. To travel internationally — especially during the height of Covid-19 travel restrictions — many were required to provide health attestation forms via QR code. But QR codes require a smartphone to download.

“I’m suddenly surrounded by QR codes. There are now Airbnb doors I can’t open, cars I can’t start, menus I can’t read. Paper menus have vanished; ordering food has become an ordeal,” Jen Wasserstein is an immigration lawyer in Spain. Writes The Guardian. She writes about the shame of being an iPhone-less person who asks for directions and board a plane. To make important calls, she uses a flip phone.

Wasserstein, however, is choosing to live the same way that most Americans did 10 years ago. Have iPhones clouded our memories so much that we can’t remember a time without them?

Smartphone dependence encourages smartphone addiction. At a time when Americans already check their phones an average of 96 times a day — every 15 minutes — with teenagers spending an On average, nine hours per day This is a recipe of disaster for people who are constantly on the phone.

Covid-19 is a key reason why smartphone addiction has reached an all-time high. LockdownsPotentially leading to many mental health disorders Antisocial and other criminal behavior. Heavy smartphone use poses serious health risks. Why are they so essential for daily living?

Many Americans are aware that their phones are addictive. Various first-person exposés on wrestling with iPhone addiction appear in corporate media outlets from Time To Time. Most of these journalists will have returned to phone-slavery after the pandemic lockdowns, which I suspect is why. Alternative technology to in-person interaction.

All hope is not lost. Recent article from the New York Times Documents A group of high schoolers from Gen Z in Brooklyn formed a Luddite Club. These teenagers have quit social media and traded in their smartphones for flip phones. They’ve seen the harmful effects smartphone use has had on their peers and they want out. They want to live life without any restrictions.

We could only convince more Westerners, purely for their own benefit, to form Luddite clubs. This would ensure that you have a fulfilling life. Increasing. But, for now, those who fear an institutional push that makes it virtually impossible to live without a phone should come together and advocate the right