The Golden Trident

Series and Photos Courtesy of Lila Qualteri

Check your pocket. The table space in front of you. Your bag. Maybe even your hand. Found your phone? Chances are, most of the time we keep our phones within arm’s reach of us, and when they’re not, we quickly adjust. Almost everyone above the age of 11 or 12 has a phone, because today, it is impossible to be without one. Our society has heavily adjusted to it so much that we literally cannot function without it. You cannot communicate with your boss, family, or friends. And more than just our phones, the apps on our phones are heavily addictive, pulling us away from the present moment into another reality. 

Studies have shown that around 50% of teenagers feel like they are addicted to their phones, and 59% of teen parents feel like their child is addicted. The average teenager’s daily screentime is around seven and a half hours, and it can feel like there is nothing to do about it. 

Many teenagers are constantly checking their phones, looking at random things like notifications, battery percentage, the time, or even sometimes just looking at it out of habit. Many different things play a part in this addiction. Social pressures are a huge reason that younger pre-teens feel the need to get phones at such a young age. Having one as a child can make you seem ‘cooler’ or allow you to be involved in more social activities. People post about parties, school functions, and many other things on their social media, and so not having that sort of connection can harm a teen socially, and therefore mentally. When you are a teenager it seems like the most important thing is fitting in, and having a phone can make you feel like you do. 

The danger of phones comes from things like social media. While it is true that it is able to bring people together in some ways, it can also estrange people. If you scroll through your social media and find that you don’t share important commonalities with others, it can feel like you are completely alone. Not to mention, social media has been proven to be intentionally unsatisfactory. You scroll and scroll, hoping for those dopamine receptors to be satisfied when the entire reason behind social media is to keep you wanting. Every post fills you just enough that you think one more will finish the job, but as many of us know, it never does. The most difficult thing is that we cannot get rid of our phones. We cannot eliminate the problem by just simply throwing out our technology. So we have to learn self discipline. 

Self discipline might be the only way to fight this issue. If you are at a point where you physically cannot put your phone down, you are not alone. Simple things that we might now even think of can help drastically can help to pull us out of our “doomscroll.” Going outside, getting up to get a drink of water, going to the bathroom, might just put you back in touch with reality enough to put down the phone for an hour. If you really need your screen fix, do something productive with it. Watching a movie you love, doing some homework, or even playing a game with a friend can make screentime a social activity and help tremendously. This school year put down the phone, and break your addiction.