Critical Thinking: Is It A Bad Idea For Someone To Check Their Smartphone When They Wake Up?

Nowadays, it is not uncommon for someone to have a very strong attachment to their Smartphone; so close in fact, that it can be practically another part of them. It won’t be physically connected to their body, but it can be as though it is.

A Number of Benefits

Yet, as there is so much that can be done with a one of these devices, this is not much of a surprise. Calls can be made and messages can be sent, along with so many other things that can take place.  

Someone can have so many apps on their phone that, if their phone was to crash and they lost all their apps, it could take them a number of weeks to download them all again. And due to how many they had, they might not remember half of what they had.

Business and Pleasure

So, along with all with staying in touch with family and friends, one can use their phone to keep their mind busy and to do their job. Having a phone like this can allow one to run their business from just about anywhere in the world.

It is not necessary for them to carry around a lot of equipment; they can just use one small device. This is a device has liberated a lot of people and allowed them to live in a way that is more in alignment with their true nature.

Freedom

For example, someone can to travel around the world instead of being tied down to a desk job, and this is going to be extremely fulfilling. If they were to go back to having a job like this, they would soon realise how bad it is.

Nevertheless, if this was how they lived their life and they only went away once a year, for instance, it would probably be a lot easier for them to handle. The reason for this is that this will be what is normal.

Worn Down

Through going into work, day after day, week after week, they would have gradually become accustomed to this way of life. Part of them can then feel unconformable with this, but another part of them can feel comfortable with it.

One is then going to be ‘comfortably uncomfortable’, and this will need to change in order for their life to change. What this shows is that someone can become comfortable with anything; it doesn’t matter if it matches up with their true needs, or if it is good for their wellbeing.

Pros and Cons

But like just like most things on this planet, a Smartphone doesn’t come without its drawbacks. What one could find is that they spend far too much time using this device, causing other areas of their life to be overlooked.

In fact, one could find that they feel lost without their phone, and that being without it causes them to experience a lot of anxiety. It will then be as though they are a small child and the phone is their mother.

A Regulator

Therefore, if they are with their phone they can feel calm and at peace but, if they are not, they can end up being on edge. Not only this, their phone is going to allow them to feel good, too.

The apps that they use will have been designed to give them a dopamine hit to keep them coming back for more, with this being the brain chemical that is linked to pleasure. It then doesn’t take a lot of thought to realise why someone would become addicted to this device.

Self-Control

What this empathises is how important it is for someone to make sure that they don’t allow this device to control their life. It is there for them to use, meaning that the device is not there to use them.

This is then not different to how if one like’s chocolate; they will need to make sure that they don’t eat it all the time. If they can’t control themselves and eat it too often, it will have a negative effect on their life.

The Time of the Day

While there is going to be no reason for them not to use their phone if they are working with it, there are going to be other times when it might not assist them. For one thing, it has been said that it can be harder for someone to sleep if they use their phone before they go to bed.

This is said to be due to the ‘blue light’ that the phone emits, with this shaving an effect on their brain and body. And if someone doesn’t get enough sleep, it can affect just about every area of their life.

Another Consequence

There is also what can happen if someone uses their Smartphone as soon as they wake up. This device can end up defining how they feel and thus, how they will behave, and this can mean that they will be reactive instead of proactive.

One is then giving their power away to this device and this will stop them from being able to be in the driver’s seat of their own life. For example, one could read a message and end up feeling deflated, or they could find that they haven’t received a message and feel the same way.

An Effect

When this happens, it can stop one from being able to tune into their own needs and to decide what it is that they need to do. As a result, they can allow the external world to make this decision for them.

So instead of being the centre of their world, they will behave as though they are just an extension of their phone. This device is then going to take away far more than it gives to them.  

Conclusion
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Ultimately, one is not here to be defined by others; they are here to define themselves. It is going to be a lot harder for them to do this if they allow their Smartphone to control how they feel and behave.

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Oliver JR Cooper
http://www.oliverjrcooper.co.uk