The background study for this thesis is focused on the
technology/lifestyle issue that current generation teenagers are facing. The issue
is not limited to teenagers only but everybody as well however this thesis
report is focusing more on teenagers rather than the rest. With technology
rapidly advancing and connectivity is so easy, getting addicted with the functions
and benefits that the smartphone provides. ‘Nomophobia’ the fear of being
without mobile phone or unable to see or use mobile phone creates a discomfort
within the user. (R. Margaret, 2013).
This study is concerning about the time usage on facing the
phone on teenagers, with what the technology has become and improved teenagers
now can be online anywhere as long they have their mobile phones. As a reason
to believe that teenagers are addicted to the device is derive from the
addiction to the internet, a psychologist named Dan Entmacher said that with
the technology moving at such a rapid pace and now has even embedded into the
very fabric of our lives, teenagers who are expose to these technology at an
early age can cause some significant problems one of which is internet
addiction. He also say that with the internet housing so many interesting
subjects like never-ending novels and the wonderful world of the internet all
available at the palm of their hands, teen are finding themselves getting
sucked in. But this comes at a cost, as the excessive screens viewing little
bits of stimulating information designed to entice viewers to become lost in
the rabbit hole changes the brain chemistry (E. Dan, 2014)
A writer named Jen Hawkyard from Treefrog Inc. wrote on what
is graphic design and he said that Graphic Design is an art with purpose. It is
a combination of both creative and systematic thinking to create a plan or
design to solve a particular problem or achieve an objective. Using the
combination of visual imagery and typography to full explain and convey the
purpose whether it is a message or instructions to the audience. It is a form
of visual communication and the expression of concepts and ideas using graphic
elements and tools. (H. Jen, 2015)
Chrysalis Communication provides 4 points of graphic design
in everyday lives, firstly it helps to give the audience a good impression
towards the promoted object allows the object to secure a place in the
audience’s memory. Second, it tells you apart from the competitors in the
field, graphic design helps create an identity for the company or brand. Third,
a good graphic design conveys a feeling of professionalism and credibility
allowing customers or potential customers to instill a trust towards the brand
or company. Lastly, graphics design helps to summarize information of a full
page document into single image that conveys the same meaning and information.
(Chrysalis Communication, 2015)
It is defined as having no control over the actions like
doing, consuming or using to the point where it becomes harmful to you.
Addiction can occur in many forms like alcohol, gambling even working and
shopping. When not able to get the addicted subject a form of withdrawal
syndrome on the addicted person making him feeling uneasy (NHS, 2015). Habits
can turn into addiction without the person noticing as there is a slight
difference between habit and addiction, habit is done by choice and can be stopped
at any time if the person chooses to, and addiction on the other hand is consist
of psychological and physical component, the person under the effect of
addiction is unable to control their action towards the object of addiction (N.
Christion, 2009).
A smartphone is a cellular phone with a computer integrated
within and have features that originally was not included in a cellphone such
as an operating system, web browsing and the ability to run software
applications on the cellphone (R. Margaret, 2007).
A writer in BBC by name of Heather Chen wrote on an article
on Asia’s smartphone addiction. In about 1000 students in South Korea were
tested in a survey, out of 72% of them were aged 11-12 and owns a smartphone.
They spend an average of 5.4 hours on them daily and were considered to be
addicted to the device. The study were said to be later revealed in 2016 and
also stress is an important factor that increases the chance of one getting
addicted (C. Heather, 2015)
9/10 American owns a smartphone of their own and 7/10 checks
their phone regularly even when nothing is going on. Flurry, an analysis firm
conduct a research and suggested that a person who opens an app for more than
60 times a day are growing 5 times the rate of regulars that open an app 16
times a day with an increase of 23% compared to the super addict which is an increase
of 123%. They also said that women are more highly to be addicted to
smartphones more than men and age group wise teens and young adults around 20
are the main point of addiction while adults between ages 25-34 are not really
prone to addiction but middle aged adults especially parents are. (D. Caitlin,
2014)
A writer in Japan suffered an incident where she was ignored
and was left to act on a person face stuck on his phone while walking. She was
with her child and has to move from the man or else they would have collided
with each other, in frustration she wrote an article on these “smartphone
idiots” (Make Yamane, 2013) and sparks question to researchers to act. A
researcher named Masakazu Kobayashi from KDDI conducted a research on 300
people and compiled a so-called “mixed-accidents” whereby people using multiple
devices simultaneously. Mobile Marketing Data Labo did another survey with 556
people and found 40% of them periodically check SNS via their phone (Kuchikomi,
2013)
ABC News
did a report in 2012 for people that are walking with their face or eyes on
something else which results in accidents where people bump on each other or
worst vehicles. It made a town in the US wanted to enforce a law that will fine
people for walking on the streets with their phones in the hand under
Jaywalking. A survey was testing by Western Washington University where they
send a clown into the campus and only ¼ of the students walking noticed the
clown (ABC News, 2012)
A writer post on the Huffington Post that she wanted to
break up with her smartphone. This is the result that she herself became aware
of what she has become where she no longer can stay away from her phone for a
long period of time and has become dependent on the device. She wrote that the
smartphone itself the device has so many features that when she needed it is
there such as google search for something she doesn’t know, instant messaging
to contact her friends, facebook for news updates or even find ways using WAZE
when she is lost. However, she wanted the real life back, face to face
conversation using vocal cord all she wanted from the smartphone was some space
and she said “Is it too much to ask?” (B. Ann, 2015)
In 2013, A Taiwanese women accidentally walked off the St.
Kilda pier in Australia while checking her phone. Police were alerted 20
minutes later and rescued her, she apologize for her actions and were sent to
the hospital for checkup but police officers says she was fine. She then said
that she couldn’t swim and was found floating on her back. A Victoria police
said in a statement that there was no need to file a lost property report as
the women “kept hold of her mobile phone throughout the entire ordeal”.
Constable Kelly called on people saying that they should pay more attention
when using social media around water. (BBC, 2013)
A filmmaker by the name Gary Turk who launched a viral video
called “Look Up”. In the video he show and state the issue that is going on but
no one seems to notice which is how much we have become a loner with all the
social networking and instant messaging. How we all think we have 450 friends
on Facebook but not more than 30 have we actually met? How we stopped going out
to play in the play with other kids but now stay home watching or playing an
iPad, how even a family sits together in the living room but not one word is
uttered among them. He showed the effect of handheld devices has done to us in
a 4:59 video. In the end, he ask us to put down our phone and live life the
right way. (T. Gary, 2014)
The topic of the research is smartphone addiction which is
an addiction towards smart mobile phone devices. Rather than an addiction of
consumption this is an addiction based on usage. This is a growing phenomenon
that being addressed often over and over again by media and designers. One most
successful campaign done in the form of a viral video that has been circling
around social media like Facebook is a video made by Gary Turk a British
filmmaker who is responsible for the video “Look Up”
This research uses the approach of case study, a method that
mostly used for social science research, psychology, anthropology and ecology.
This method is widely used to test theoretical models on real world
applications.
Case study is a research method that research in depth from
a broad and wide field into one easily researchable topic. Here in the topic of
smartphone addiction is a very wide spread topic with multiple issues ranging
from physical dangers to social issues therefore using case study will narrow
down the issues and finally focusing only on one issue. (S. Martyn, 2008)
Case study uses data collected through various means
including, but not limited to interview, observations, audio files, video data
and document collections. The goal of those data is to enhance the theory
generating capabilities of the case in which here is smartphone addiction to
give additional validation to the assertion made by the researcher or
participants in the case. (Stake, 2005)
Statistic of
Smartphone Usage: An analysis of smartphone usage statistics indicates the
rise of smartphone and tablet usage in Asia is the highest in the world. And
children aged from 5 years onwards begin to have their own smartphone and with
such exposure at young age addiction is sure to come. (C. Heather, 2015)
Survey done to target
audience: This is a manual survey done on the target audience to get their
opinions and experience firsthand and also the statistics of smartphone usage
in the target location.
Content Analysis of
Research done by other researchers: An analysis of research done by other
researchers for more data and theories on the same issue which can be used to
enhance this research.
Analysis of campaign done
by others: There are many other campaigns done and by analyzing the
contents of those campaigns to find the SWOT of the campaign and improve from
there.
Since this is a Case Study research, the data that is
collected are a combination of quantitative data and qualitative data.
Quantitative data
is information that can be measured for instance here will be the statistics
and survey results where the information and data gathered are mostly number
based.
Qualitative data
is information that cannot be measured for example here is the content analysis
videos, pictures and articles that also focused on the same issue.
Survey - A record of data
based on answers given to the target audience on question provided by the
organizer. This instrument collects the opinions and answers given from
the target audience for a more firsthand data.
Questions – Smartphone usage survey
Age
- <13
- 13-15
- 16-17
- 18-19
- >19
Occupation (You can pick more than one answer)
- High School Student
- Part Timer
- College Student
- Full Time Employed
- Other, (please specify)
Estimated usage of smartphone or tablet a day
- <1 hour
- 1-2 hours
- 3-4 hours
- 4-5 hours
- >5 hours
What do you do with your phone/tablet most of the time (You can tick more than one answer)
- Social Media
- Online Messaging
- Internet Search
- E-mails
- Calls
- Gaming
- Others, (please specify)
Do you look for WiFi service wherever you go?
- Always
- Very Frequently
- Occasionally
- Rarely
- Very Rarely
- Never
Could you go a day without your phone?
- Strongly Agree
- Agree
- Undecided
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
The survey is then transferred to an online survey program,
freeonlinesurvey.com which they will create a link for the survey that can be
passed around. Using the link and the sharing power of social media, the survey
will pass to high school students and there the survey will circle around among
themselves and friends.
A preview of the survey online is as above, with only 6
questions the person surveyed will just have to tick the answer which they want
and click the finish survey button at the bottom right of the survey and that
is it.
The website freeonlinesurvey.com will then compile the
answers and preview the results in various charts based on the frequency of the
answers. The results will be in 4.0 Results and Discussion.
Observation – A
method of watching someone or something carefully to gather data or
information.
While
the survey is being circling around the target audience additional research
should be done using observation which is the researcher will move around the
scope of study and observe the target audience to gather data on their behavior
when using smartphones. Pictures will be gathered as proof, however the
pictures are taken with the consent of those in it although this is a breach of
privacy in order to get the natural and honest behavior of the target audience,
they must not know that they are being watched or recorded to avoid any
interference of a more accurate data gathering.
Content Analysis – a method of summarizing any form
of content by including various aspect of the content. This allows a more
objective evaluation rather than just an impressionistic evaluation of a
listener.
Using
the case studies of the same issues and topic as a reference of research to
gain more data and information to enhance and improve the research.
The survey is done with 6 questions in a questionnaire form
that is created on an online survey website and spread using social media to
the target audience. The survey will ask question on the usage of smartphone on
a daily basis and what kind of activity they do on the device and how much they
look for internet access.
This data gathering method is not without a limitation, due
to the time line of the research the target audience of the research are
currently having an important examination (SPM) for those who are age 17 and or
other is on holiday and getting them to fill in the survey physically seems
less likely therefore the alternative of doing it online is used.
Another
form of research is doing an observation on the target audience to gather
information. This data gathering is to get information on behavior of the
target audience which is the teenagers from a different perspective. An example
will be watching the teenagers from a distance and observe them without them
knowing to get the most natural behavior or reaction without any interference
from the thought of knowing that they are being observed and recorded for a
research. It is a similar method used by the zoologist when they are doing
research on the animals in the wild.
This is
an analysis on the reports and articles on teenage behavior on smartphones. Using
the research of other to gain information on their research and make a research
based on that research to find more information.
Getting
data from articles and reports on the dangers of smartphone addiction to get
information on the negativity on the addiction such as physical dangers and
mental dangers. This is to get information that could be used to encourage the
awareness of the addiction to audience that they could be in the same dangers
and also maybe steps to avoid such dangers.
There
are many designers and filmmakers that try to address the issue of smartphone
addiction and multiple designs or videos are created. Analysis the video to get
the concept and issue addressed in the video and sort out a SWOT analysis on
the video to find the weakness or the strength to further improve or to use as
a guideline to creating a new project or campaign.
Fig.11: Look Up, Gary Turk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
There
are many artwork made by various designers that is been shared throughout
social media like Facebook. These artworks are targeted at the issue of how
smartphones has turned our way of communications and how we humans are being
controlled by these devices.
Fig.12: Smartphone Addiction, Steve Cutts:
http://www.stevecutts.com/illustration.html
After some time of the letting the survey circle around (8
days) starting from the 19th of November 2015 a compilation of the
results is done on the website in which they sort out the results on different
charts to see the frequency and differential between answers. A total of 53
respondent was collected
This here is the first question which is Age: where you can
see that the highest frequency of the result is teenagers from the age group of
16-17 taking up 22.6% of the total 53 respondent followed closely by teenagers
of 18-19. As an initial assumption, teenagers of age 16 to 19 are keener to
getting smartphone addiction.
Question 2 ask the respondent of their occupation, there are
5 answers High School Student, College Student, Part Timer, Full Time Employed
and others (please specify). High School Students has the highest of response
because the target audience is teenagers between 13 – 19 during which they are
mostly studying in high school or colleges. However there are some cases where
the teenager has left school and are now working full time or part time but
that is their privacy and we will not delve further into it. This here shows
most of the answers that we will be getting is mostly from the perspective of a
high school student.
Question 3 ask the respondent on the estimated time that
they use their phones while the data based on estimation can’t be very accurate
but to ask them the exact time of their usage is also quite impossible
therefore only an estimated time can be used. The answers here correspond on
the honesty and awareness of the target audience on their time usage on the
device giving them a chance to think about the amount of time that they used on
their mobile phone alone in a day.
Most answered with the time frame of 2 – 3 hours very
closely behind is 3 – 4 hours. The answers can be plus or minus the exact time
used as some days they could be using the device longer than yesterday and that
might give us a deviation from the answers given. However this report is based
on the answers given, a short interview was done to a respondent on how she
calculated her estimated time of usage, she answered that she counted the time
by a guess because she says that no one would actually count the actual time
used on the phone but she says even it’s a guess the time would not be far from
the fact as the brain will unconsciously count by itself.
On question 4 is asking them what kind of activities they do
on the phone most of the time during their usage time. Based on the results of
the survey social media seems to be not the highest as assumed to be instead it
is the Online messaging applications that took the number one spot for most
used application on phone taking up 84.9% out of all the 53 respondents that is
like almost everyone uses this application. Social media accumulate to 71% of
the respondent and coming third is Games which is 47% a large difference
between the first and second top pick, this shows the difference in frequency
of the activity done. The least use activity is e-mails as most of the time
teenagers do not use e-mails and even if they do they use a computer or a
laptop instead for e-mails. Surprisingly calls is also a low pick for “usage of
mobile phones”, apparently when asked the answer that they gave was they use
the Online Messaging for calls as now these application also allow calls as
well.
For this question the answers is a bit diverse where the
respondents are asked whether or not they look for WiFi access wherever they
go. This might show how much are they addicted to the internet by the answers
given, however due to the existence of data plan given by telecommunications
service provider most smartphone users has internet access even without WiFi access
at the cost of a monthly subscription. On the other hand, accessing a WiFi
hotspot outdoors will stop using the data plan allowing the respondent to use
internet without using up their data plan to help save cost. As the chart
states most of them “Very Frequently” look for a WiFi access followed by
“Occasionally” shows most of them do look for WiFi access wherever they go. It
could be to save cost as the data plan do have a limitation on how much you can
use in a month or to get a more stable internet connection or the activities
that the respondents want to use on their phone. A few respondent answered
“Always” this is because it might be that they do not have a data plan
subscription as there are a few people who owns a smartphone but do not have
internet access on the go.
The last question will ask the respondent whether they could
go a day without their phone/tablet as these device has seem to become a part
of our daily lives and also to gauge their reliance on the device. At first
thought the answers were to be limited to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ however a discussion
were done and it was better to let the respondent answer with a Likert scale
format to have a better analysis on how much they can go a day without their
phone. The question is asking whether that they can go on doing their normal
activity in a day without their phone within their reach and the answers given
are heavily sided with negativity as the disagree answers are accumulated to
59% out of 100% and “Strongly Disagree” with 23% out of 59% showing that these
respondent are unable to go a day without their phone.
After the release of smartphones especially the iPhone in
2007 the smartphone gained a lot of attention from the masses. In 2013 a study
was done to identify the statistic of smartphone penetration in Malaysia by
Ericsson ConsumerLab in South East-Asia to conclude that the consumers nowadays
love smartphones. The online survey consist of 500 urban users aged from 16 –
60 who uses Internet daily. The study shows that smartphone penetration has
increased from 47% in 2012 to 63% in 2013 whereas tablets increased from 14% in
2012 to 39% in 2013.
Smartphone penetration =
47% (2012) – 63% (2013)
Tablet penetration =
14% (2012) – 39% (2013)
This is due to the fact that besides SMS and voice calls,
internet access is one of the main factors for such increase spike and also the
main drive factor to making consumers buy smartphones said Afrizal Abdul Rahim
the regional head for Ericsson (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd ConsumerLab. (Chong Jinn
Xiung, 2013)
Fig.19: Smartphone penetration
There is also a clear change in the usage of mobile internet
data usage as now consumers are using more instant messaging services or online
messaging services, social network and video streaming. This could be due to
the strong promotion and adverts like KakaoTalk, WeChat and LINE messaging in
the market. (This can be seen in the survey report above in 4.1 Survey
Report)
17% of the respondent said that they would get a new
smartphone in the next 6 months he added, also the mobile data per user needs
to be quadruple to an average of 2 gigabytes per user in 2018 sparks the need
of operators to increase the bandwidth of networks pushing technology with
demands. (A. Rahim Afrizal, 2013)
On Device a mobile market research company that samples and
technology provider that helps brands and consumers connect via mobile studies.
In 2014, On Device conducted a research on Malaysia mobile users and shows that
Malaysia now has 140% mobile penetration resulting a rough estimated 10 million
smartphone users and Malaysia’s mobile landscape is performing better than most
South East Asia countries event eh United States.
The report helps to understand the mobile landscape in
Malaysia, especially the smartphone trend and how it implies in the mobile
commerce and payment technology.
Fig.20: Internet & mobile
statistics
Using a few key indicators of mobile landscape and internet
usage in Malaysia:
Population :
29 million, 70% urban (as of 27 Feb 2014 surpass 30 million)
Internet penetration :
66% (66% x 30 million = 19800000, almost 20 million internet users)
Mobile penetration :
140% (47% Malaysian owns more than 1 mobile phone)
3G subscription : 10 million (15 million according to
MCMC, Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission)
This shows how the smartphone trend as affected Malaysians
in their daily life and internet access has change the way they do things. Falling
behind only Singapore and Vietnam, Malaysia exceeds Indonesia, Thailand and
even United States in terms of mobile penetration. (e-commerce.milo, 2014)
In one of the research done by ecommercemilo.com is an
Internet growth potential where it took the data of internet users and
e-commerce users in 2011 and showcase the assumption of potential numbers and
growth in 2016.
Fig.21: Internet Users in South East
Asia in 2011 and estimated growth in 2016
The image above shows the numbers of internet and e-commerce
users in South East Asia in 2011 in gray and the estimated growth of users in
2016 in red. The following chart shows the population percentage of age group
that are using the internet and the average spent time online.
Fig.22: Online population in South
East Asia and Average Spent Time Online chart
A clearer chart is replicated for more accurate analysis as
the original chart is blurry and unable to get a clearer view of the chart
Fig.22: South East Asia online population
As the chart indicates that Malaysia highest online
population is from the age of 15 – 24 which took a total of 37% most of the
online users are young. Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia has more
than 50% of their online population to be younger than 35 years old. The
research target audience is in the 37% which is the age group of 15 – 24 years
old and it is also the highest amount among the age group indicating that among
Malaysians younger age group tend to go online more than older age groups.
Fig.23: Average time spend online
The
chart above list the average time spent online by the online population of
these six countries in the month of March 2013. Malaysia having 16 hours on
average ranking 5th among the 6 countries 1st is Thailand
which is 27.2 hours that is more than a single day on average time spent
online. (e-commerce.milo, 2014)
Smartphones has becomes much of a trend in almost every part
of the world and with the shipment of smartphones surpassing 1 billion units
last year (2014) Google Inc. believe incorrectly with a little hindsight that
their Android One program would bring the next billion of smartphone shipment into
the fold while others are looking for low cost manufacturers in Asia to meet
the high consumer demands.
Fig.24: Smartphone market growth
The market of smartphone reaching 2 billion varies from
differently from each firm while some said it be slow others shows it going to
be faster than how the first billion is reached depending on consensus. Ever
since the first billion of shipment is passed the demands and shipments of the
devices kept going higher at a steady rate while a slowdown is predicted near
the end of the decade. The charts above are charts made by BI Intelligence and
eMarketer which both indicates that the second billion will be reached within
some point in 2016. Other firms like ABI and IDC Research have a different
opinion they suggested that the second billion will be a little later perhaps
in 2017 or 2018 however the numbers are quite close as of now. According to BI
Intelligence reports, 1.3 billion units of smartphone were shipped in 2014, 29%
growth rate from the year 2013. Compared to the growth in 2013 which is 45% it
may seems that the numbers are diminishing the firm insist that their
prediction of the number of growth is increasing strong year after year. BI
Intelligence also state a prediction that in the year 2020, 3.4 billion units
of smartphone will be shipped not by the support by the momentum from China,
but a bloom that is from India. (T. Robb, 2015)
Fig.25: Smartphone addiction BBC news
(Artist – Goh Wei Choon)
Up until recently only the term Nomophobia – the fear of
losing access to your smartphone has been the talk these few years. But in
Asia, the birthplace of the selfie stick and emojis, psychologist are beginning
to state that the smartphone addiction is on the rise and the addicts are getting
younger and younger. A recent study was done in South Korea with 1000 students
where 72% of the children owns a smartphone by the age of 11 – 12 and spend on
average 5.4 hours a day on the device as a result 25% of those students are
considered to be addicted to smartphones, the study that is going to be
released in 2016 states that stress is an important factor of the likelihood of
getting smartphone addiction. Smartphone are central to many societies in the
world but most have been integrated with Asian cultures in multiple ways, for
example the obligatory “food porn” where the user MUST take a photo of the food before eating a meal: in Japan that
culture has a whole term to it called “keitai” culture. (Heather Chen, 2015)
Asia and it’s 2.5 billion smartphone users
provides a ‘stream’ of phone-related mishap news, like such as a Taiwanese
tourist who walked off the pier in
Australia while checking her Facebook on her phone or how a women in Sichuan,
China where she needs to be saved by firefighter after falling into the drain while looking at her phone while walking
these are just only few examples of mishaps that has happened to people around
the world. (Heather Chen, 2015)
While the titles of the news maybe laugh worthy, this raised
concerns in Singapore that the addiction is moving towards the younger
generations with only 6 million population the smartphone penetration is
highest among the South East Asian countries. The country has specialist that
helps the addiction just like drugs, a cyber-wellness clinic (rehab) and runs
campaign to make this type of addiction to be formally recognized publicly. The
manager of Touch Cyber-Wellness Centre of Singapore, Chong Ee-Jay said “Youth
lacks the level of maturity, making it harder for them to manage smartphone
usage as they have no self-control” instilling a serious concern on how
smartphone usage will affect the daily lives of the children.
In South Korea, a 19 year old teenager who is named Emma
Yoon which is not her real name is undergoing treatment for nomophobia since
April 2013. “My phone become my world, it is an extension of me.” “My heart
would race, my palms will grow sweaty if I thought I lost my phone so I never
go anywhere without it” were the comments she gave. Her parents also added that
her smartphone addiction usage amplified other behavioral problems she was
exhibiting. She began to retreat from her hobbies and school activities.
Fig.26: Smartphone addiction, (Artist
– Goh Wei Choon)
Who would have thought that using your smartphone will
actually harm you but it does as there are a few cases where people walked off
or into objects. Some even create a hassled for others who are around them.
Like in Australia, 2013 there was a case of a Taiwanese tourist walked off a pier into the ocean which
she had to be saved by the coast guard and police on a speedboat 20 minutes
later. The police found her floating meters away from the pier, Senior
Constable Dean Kelly said “She was still out of the water laying on her back in
a floating position, in which she told us that she couldn’t swim” “She kept her
mobile phone in her hand throughout the entire ordeal and kept apologizing…she
then added she fall off the pier while checking her Facebook on her phone.”
(BBC, 2013)
This is just one of a few mishaps on the same page on the
BBC website there is a comment section at the bottom where users and reader can
leave comments on the news and there are a few confessions where the user
witness or suffered the same mishaps:-
- I've walked into doors, tables, people etc.
been lucky with lamp posts so far though... Just near misses :) @Rosemary_ella via Twitter
- Once, I almost fell into a hole because I was
engrossed in a bbm chat on the street at night. @monteaguh via Twitter
- I used to love to go to malls and people watch.
On more than one occasion I watched people walk into walls, pillars, and once I
watched someone walk (fall rather) into a fountain. The best part of that is
when they apologise to the wall or pillar like it was a person. People just
tend to shut off to the outside world whenever they are staring at their
phones. Alec Fleming
from Arizona, USA
- I'm such a total klutz. Last week I walked into
a pole while emailing someone on my phone. I was walking to my boyfriend's flat
in Edinburgh and needed to email someone for work. There was a man across the
street who saw me and it was very embarrassing. My phone hasn't worked the same
since. Cara
McCulloch, London, England
These are just a few of the comments from users that
suffered or witness the same mishaps and there are more.
A website known as Huffington Post where users can go and
post confession or opinion on it. A user called Ann Brenoff posted a post
titled “Dear Smarphone, I’m Breaking up with You” “I want to be able to make
eye contact with humans again. Is that so much to ask?” where she gives her
opinion on the smartphone addiction problem that is been addressed.
She began with a statement where she treated the smartphone
device as a human and that their relationship has some good runs but it has
become unhealthy and that this is not the device’s fault but hers. Saying that
she thought she was ready for a full 24/7 commitment relationship but she is
not this could mean that she had thought that she would be in the state where
she would not be able to go without her phone but she was wrong. The feeling of
doing some activities with the physical manifestation of the object like
reading a book that is printed on paper rather than a screen, playing and
running in the field and sweating and even the thought of turning the
smartphone off and go watch a movie in the theater with or without friends
instead of watching it on a small screen on her hand. She thought that this is
crazy talk but she felt the emptiness of talking with people using text and her
thumb instead of the immersion of a vocal conversation using her vocal cord
this is where most of the teenagers do nowadays with their smartphone. Also she
said that even with the ‘phone’ in the term smartphone the functionality of the
‘phone’ is never used that much in which she finds it odd but then again it is
not the device’s fault but hers.
The smartphone has always been there for her whenever she
needs to, for like the time when she is in need for a doctor using WebMD
to diagnose what ailed her, or to get to know the current news in the talks like
the Nicki Minaj-Taylor Swift feud using Google Ready or to prank a
friend who found her after 40 years later after graduating from high school on Facebook
on the game Words with Friends. How she had laugh when the smartphone autocorrects
her words changing words like ‘dog’ to ‘dope’ making the need for some
explaining to do to her kids. The device has so many wonderful qualities which
makes it very hard for her to walk away, how she could not eat her lunch
without actually posting a picture of it on Instagram, how she kept
relying on the alarm to wake her up when she needed and using WAZE
to find her way around places she doesn’t know, also she mentioned that what if
she missed something funny on the internet? The feeling of missing out on
something is what kept people sticking to the device is what her opinion is.
As the post comes to an end she began to state the problem
with the relationship between her and the device like when the device uses the
data from her history to create countless recommendation for her (stealing her
self-discovery) the device just doesn’t know when to stop showering her with
stuffs. She wants to break free from it, how she hides behind the device
whenever she is on an elevator rides, every 5 minutes she takes and checks her
phone while doing grocery. She also mentioned that in the beginning that she
only ‘sees’ it as a phone device but now it has gone a different way as the
device also follows her into the bathroom. In the end she wrote “I just wanted
to be able to make eye contact with humans again”
Fig.27: Gary Turk’s Look Up
In 2014 a British filmmaker named Gary Turk created a
narration video which is 5 minutes long that garners a lot of attention and was
shared and viewed by many. Uploaded on Youtube in 25th April 2014,
now after 1 year plus the video has 54,816,501 views as of now and in total has
350+ million views worldwide (garyturk.com, 2014). The video won multiple
awards such as Best Viral Film at
Cannes Media & TV award, and was the 4th most trending video on
Youtube by Youtube officials. What the video is about is the things that is
happening to smartphone addicts and the opinion of the filmmaker who will be
narrating as long the video about his thoughts and what he has seen on our
society nowadays with these smartphones devices. The video is told through a
poetic narration and scenes to go with it, the video says how we can have so
many friends but yet some of them don’t even know us, we call all these online
social network is anything but social when we turn on the devices to connect to
them it is our doors we shut. We have turned into the slaves of the technology
we worked so hard to create how we share information and best memories but
leave all the emotion behind, a world of self-interest, self-image and
self-promotion. When we share a great experience to others is where we are most
happy but is it the same when no one is actually there?
Fig.28: Gary Turk’s Look Up
How we stand and sit in a busy train packed with people but
no one is talking to each other all in the fear of looking insane. In a world
where everyone acts like a robot children will think it is a norm and how we
call ourselves the greatest dad when we can’t even entertain our children
without an iPad. He made a lot of good points in his 5 minutes long speech
about how we call it socializing when we are actually not as all we really do
is look down on our phone and not really communicating. For example like how a
family is eating together but all are just looking and interacting with the
phone and other with each other, the picture below is a photo snapped by me
when having breakfast with my family members (mother and sister).
Fig.29: A Picture of mother and
daughter
Notice how they both had their phones out? My sister noticed
me because I lifted my phone up higher than I used to but my mother didn’t even
knew I took the photo. This is what the device is slowly turning us into, the
lady at the back between my mother and sister has a child with her and he is
eating instead of helping or watching the child the lady has her phone out and
is playing with it this shows how parenthood is also affected by this
phenomenon.
Gary’s points are without flaws and despite the success
there are people who react negatively towards his ‘Look Up’ video. There are
some points which can be argued on how it is exaggerating for example:
Being alone isn’t the problem,
let me just emphasize,
that if you read a book, paint a picture, or do
some exercise,
you are being productive, and present, not
reserved or recluse,
you’re being awake and attentive, and putting
your time to good use.
It can be argued that
this paragraph is wrong as some of the internet users are saying even using the
phone can be productive as well like when we read about something on the
internet and learn things or watch the news on the device as well which is also
productive.
Another point is:
The time you don’t need to tell hundreds, about
what you’ve just done,
because you want to share the moment, with just
this one.
The time you sell your computer, so you can buy
a ring,
for the girl of your dreams, who is now the real
thing.
“The time you sell your
computer, so you can buy a ring” This line has some users says that this
is absurd because we now live in a world where internet and computer is part of
almost every job and activity. Selling the computer for a ring? That is just
crazy. A Youtube channel by the name of the Fine Brothers Entertainment who
takes viral videos and show them to people to get their reactions and opinion
on the video on June 26th 2014 they showed ‘Look Up’ to multiple
Youtubers and recorded their attention and got their opinion on it.
Fig.30: Youtubers react to Look Up
In the reaction video some youtubers raise the opinion of
that the addiction is can be seen in two different ways it can be bad it can be
good. Some reacted negatively towards the video saying that the internet and
technology makes lives better while others does share a kind of agreement to
what the video is all about but has their own opinion on it. Some argued that
even when we do it on the phones it is still communication between two people,
however what the video is saying is that we should be communicating the ‘real’
way which is vocal face to face communication. In which they were asked why
they think this video has so much attention and is being shared so much on the
internet? The answers are this is something that the audience can relate,
something they can all agree on but not enforce it, something that is happening
but no one is trying to make a difference.
In the end, ‘Look Up’ is successful not because of the views
and shares but the train of thought that comes after watching the video like
how it makes the audience think about the subject matter or the issue of
internet addiction how we are socializing through a façade. What they do after
the thought is completely up to them it a choice they have to make for
themselves and not be forced upon on.
Fig.31: Texting While Walking Video,
ABC News
2012, ABC news channel posted a video of a news segment on a
topic about people who are walking while looking at the phones. The news is
about people who are causing traffic problems on the road because they are
walking while looking down on their phones and is expose to dangers on the
road. It covers the fact that smartphones addiction is generating a problem to
vehicles on the road as pedestrians are crossing roads while not paying
attention to the road and causing much accidents. A town in the US has created
a fine for people that are ‘jaywalking’ (crossing the road without any regards
for approaching traffic) (Dictionary.com, 2015)
Fig.32: Digi Social experiment: what
happens when you can’t put your phone down?
Posted on October 2nd 2015, DiGi
Telecommunications uploaded a video about an experiment on unsuspecting people
about smartphone addiction. The video shows a few shots of people in a shopping
mall all looking down on their phones and ask the audience who is watching the
video “Have you seen this before?” and continues that this is not something new
that is just happening and people have been trying to solve this problem for
quite some time and nothing seems to be working maybe the message just isn’t
clear enough or isn’t personal enough so they tried this experiment to see what
happens when the problem is right in front of them.
They invited some people to a meal in a restaurant and made
them wait, after all the preparation is set and done the organizer ran to the
kitchen and stood behind the door to spy on the target.
With 2 minutes on the clock, he insisted that the targets
will take out their phones instead of talking to each other. After some
montage, few scenes with the target pulling out their phones and the tables
full of people is silent with that as the signal the organizer pressed a button
on a remote control unit and a wall rise from the table with the target of the
experiment.
Looking all confused the targets all just sit and look at
the wall rising from the table until each of them is isolated completely from
each other.
Then the organizer appears before them and explain the
situation for them which whenever they hold or pick up their phone, the wall
will rise and when they put it down the wall is drop down which then explained
that this is a social experiment about smartphone addiction. After all said and
done, they ask the people who were in the experiment to give their opinion about
what they just went through, here are a few comments and thoughts from the
target audience:
“I felt like uh,
something like a loneliness”
“So whenever we take
up our smartphone, we ignore family member or whoever that is with us at the
time”
“I don’t get what the
point of meeting up if all we ever do is playing with our phones”
Why be alone when we’re together? The statement at the end
of the video, pretty much same like how Gary Turk’s ‘Look Up’ video, this
social experiment is showing the negativity of smartphone usage but only this
time instead of showing the audience scenes that are shot with the message in
mind, the social experiment is recording the actual reaction of people which
are natural and not influenced by any third party.
This ‘addiction’ problem doesn’t seem to be any kind of
serious issue when seen as a general topic but when the scope is narrowed down
to a specific topic like family interaction or being rude the problem becomes
obvious. We call each other to meet up or have a meal together but when we meet
up instead of talking to each other, we greet each other, order our meals and
exchange a few lines and continue watching our phones scrolling down for the
remainder of the meal with one or two exchange in between.
Fig.33: A random couple in a mamak
stall in Kajang
While to many this doesn’t seem to have any problem, but to
some this can be a rude gesture as we call each other to meet up saying we
haven’t seen each other for a long time and all we do is look at our phone when
we met this is rude to some people and considered to be offensive.
As a summary for the research, smartphone addiction is an
issue for some time and multiple voice has been raised about it but never was
taken in seriously by the public. Many research firms and researcher are
concerned how the younger generations are reacting towards this phenomenon,
while the technology of the smartphone is helping us in many aspect of our
daily lives it is also corrupting us by making everything so easy. Smartphone
devices are supposed to improve our lives by introducing multiple application
that helps us to solve minor things quickly but because of the functionality of
the device we get hooked and reliant towards it making separating with it
irresistible. When we are able to remember contact numbers with memories alone
now we only need to tap a few times and the numbers of thousands contact is
there this can be said as a good thing but it also reduce our capability as a
human to do simple stuffs such as remembering a set of numbers. Here in this
research it has shown that smartphone has become such a barrier for human
interaction and communication where we used to make calls now we use online
messaging because of the multiple stickers and emoji which makes messaging so
much more interesting. How we used to sit on a bench as use our imaginations to
entertain ourselves while waiting for something or someone, now we have every
assortment of entertainment at our fingertips, when we want to explore and see
interesting sceneries we would call our friends or family to go on a trip
together and share the experience together side by side laughing and exchanging
thoughts, now we only snap a picture and send to them while continuing to
‘chat’ ignoring the fact that we are still there at the scenery. Albert
Einstein once said:
“I fear the day that
technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation
of idiots”
This could be in relation with one of his saying:
“It has become
appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”
Where we are trading our humanity for technology, many would
argue that this is not the fact and technology is helping us and improving
humanity but are we? Smartphone has made playground who once is filled with
children are now empty and abandoned. Kids who once used to play with others
and toys with their imagination are now all looking at a square screen.
However, we can’t tell people to stop using smartphones with
all these negativity videos but what we as designers can do is to make them
ponder about the issue and make them act on their own. How they would act will
be on how the message is being introduced which is the designer’s job.
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