“My mind is constantly going. For me to completely relax, I gotta get rid of my cell phone.”

-Kenny Chesney

Gains, pains of a revolution

By Sunday Ani ([email protected])

As traffic was building up on Sunday evening, a female traffic officer in uniform standing at Ago Palace Way Roundabout in Lagos was busy pressing her phone in the middle of the road. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she did not know her photograph was being taken was being. Meanwhile, she was supposed to be controlling traffic. It was, indeed, a shocking scene.

The other day, one of our reporters was aboard a plane en route to Enugu from Lagos. Before take-off, it was an announcement about an unidentified luggage and a warning that if no one identified it, it would be abandoned. The announcement was made several times but nobody responded. A member of the crew went down and through the tag on the luggage, the owner was identified. What happened was that the passenger, who had blocked his ears with earpiece and, so, didn’t hear the repeated announcement.

It is even common to hear phones, ringing while a flight had taken off. The reason is that many people are so addicted to their phones and other gadgets that they can’t stay off them for a few minutes. It is also common to see people on motorcycles fiddling with their phones while on motion. Many people are equally busy pressing their phones as they walk on the street. Some families are in a shambles because of perpetual distraction of parents, who no longer pay attention to their spouses and children but would rather devote all their time to gadgets. Against traffic rules and regulations, many drivers are in the habit of making phone calls while driving. Of course, this has resulted in several accidents.        

Consider what Consultant Neurosurgeon and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Babcock University, Prof Iheanyichukwu Okoro, said: “These things are good, but the way we use them is the problem. Some people are so addicted to phones to the extent that if you tell them to put off their phones for five minutes, it would appear as if they are about to die. I get amazed when I see people, who refuse to switch off their phones in the aircraft, even when they had been warned that leaving them on would affect signals. I have had to quarrel with some of them. I said to one person: ‘You want to hold your phone and crash; is that better for you? Why can’t you put off your phone for the next one hour and after that you can put it on again?’ My brother, we are getting addicted to these things so much that they are beginning to affect our health. We want to warn that people should be very careful how they use their phones. They should not get them too close to their heads even when they answer calls. People have to be very careful.”    

The Medical Director of Hosanna Hospital, Festac, Lagos, Dr. Chikodi Onyemkpa, said: “It is a fad because technology in itself has some component of it that is a fashion and that is what you are seeing. And as you live and get involved with the processes of life, there can be some positives and negatives.

“The connectivity and the community we now belong to, by virtue of virtual connection that telephone offers us, has positive benefit to the extent that we feel part of a community we cannot physically touch.

“However, in trying to get across to that community, we tend to get into some sort of problems with our own immediate physical community; the real tangible community and the rules of our own safety in that physical tangible community may have consequences that have medical dimensions,” he said.

He further said: “For instance, if we have our ears plugged and there is danger and one of those five senses that connect us to our physical environment, which is the sense of hearing is impaired, then the protection that we receive from the sense of hearing in terms of warning signals, becomes impaired to our own personal safety. Even the safety of other persons is also compromised and the consequences can be grave indeed. That is why people are knocked down because they can’t hear a car honking or somebody wants to walk into danger and people are shouting but he or she can’t hear them because his or her ears are plugged.

“The same thing happens with your eyes being glued to your cell phone and you are walking into danger; you cannot see it. That is how people will cross the road pressing whatever they are pressing on their phone; they can’t see the oncoming vehicles. There is obvious danger but they cannot see it because again one of the things that connect humans to the physical environment, which is the sense of sight, is engaged and so, while trying to connect to your virtual environment, you become disconnected from your physical environment, thereby exposing yourself to physical danger. That is what happens.

“Whether our ears, eyes or perception of the mind generally is engaged because you have engaged in virtual world that disconnected you from the physical world, your problem will always be in like manner. So, the realities of people perishing in accident or having severe injuries as a result of one person or another that is busy sending short messages or listening to the phone or changing music while driving or moving in high speed objects is already well established and still form the focus of instruction and advice for people that engage in such behaviour.”

However, Dr. Onyemkpa clearly stated that the aforementioned negative effects cannot be termed medical implication since they are matter of individual choices. According to him, “whereas such behaviour might not be completely accepted, we cannot attribute medical causes to what are purely matters of choices of individuals that are engaged in such practices.”

Also speaking on the issue, Pastor Richard Minet of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Praise Tabernacle Area Headquarters, Festac, Lagos, lamented that instead of the phone, aiding people to communicate and achieve certain things like storing, sending or receiving information; it has replaced people’s relationship skill.

“It has got so bad that there are people who can’t do anything without a phone in their hand. A father is talking to his child and the child is answering the father and at the same time chatting with somebody on the phone. You will be surprised that most of our young people today lack relationship skills. They do better with the phone than with human being. Bring them together in a house and you will be surprised that some of them can’t cope. You say anything and they get angry and walk away because they want to be with their phones. They are beginning to lose touch of relationship with humans. That is one of the social implications of people and phone,” he said.

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He also said it affected people’s productivity in workplaces, as they spend most of their time with their phones.

His words: “Today, most employees spend half of their office hours, chatting on the phone instead of doing the job. Even when a new client comes into an office, the front desk officer, who ought to attend to the client is busy pressing the phone and flares up at the client who might innocently want to know why he is being kept unattended to.”

However, he did not forget the negative impact such addiction has on families. He said: “Today, you see a man waiting for the wife on the bed but she is very busy with the phone. You also see a woman waiting for the husband’s attention but he is very busy with the phone. So, we seem to be more married to the phone than we are to the people and at the end of the day, we are losing relationship.”

Still on the social implication, he said addiction to the use of phone has made many people to lose touch with realities of life. “Some of the challenges are that the machine has made us to lose touch with the realities of life. Marriage is a reality and that is why homes are breaking today. Marriage is built; it doesn’t happen. You take time to build relationship and character. Marriage changes people. Some people can’t let marriage change them; they cannot understand why they should be patient with a man. So, they change and become who they are not. They divorce severally and become wilder and tougher because they cannot cope with the realities of life. So, this is one of the major problems that we have,” he stated

On the effect on moral life, he said: “Before now, we had children who sought the advice of their parents when they have problems. We believe in our parents. The advent of social media has changed all that. We no longer relate with our families. You will be surprised that young people these days are in the family but all their relationships are with the outside world via the social media. A young lady is closer to a social platform than she is to her mother. So, when she needs any advice, she goes to the platform and most of the people who proffer solution on social media don’t have the experience that our parents have. And because what our parents are telling us is not exactly what we see on social media, we tend to see them as old school.

“Morals are becoming extinct because of the advent of social media. No matter what our parents say, they are old school and that in itself is damaging the relationship of our parents and their children. And that is a big dent on moral,” he added.

The man of God also lamented that the development is disconnecting us from God. He said: “Children obey your parents, for this is right in the sight of the Lord. Honour your father and your mother that it shall be well with you. This is the first commandment. So, if our generation is getting more disobedient to their parents and more disconnected from listening to people that God has placed over us, then there is no way we can be connected to God.”

For Mr. Isaac Otumala, a sociologist and lecturer at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, the issue of addiction to phone nowadays is a serious matter. He said it affected both the family and individual as well. “As a lecturer, I can tell you that it affects students in their study. Students no longer have time for their studies; they spend all the time on their phones.

“For the family, it has affected relationship between parents and their children. Some fathers are so busy with their phone, such that their parental responsibility, in terms of gathering the family together suffers. Most times, when children need the attention of their father or mother, they won’t get it because parents are busy with their phones. It makes parents to be irresponsible. Children need affection and love,” he said.

Otumala also revealed that just as it affects students’ academic performance, it also affects some lecturers’ productivity. “Although, the use of phone helps lecturers in researching information for adequate lecture but when it is abused, you may not achieve any good result. In fact, phone addiction affects several aspects of our life negatively. For instance, even in church, people no longer fear God; there is no respect for holy things, as people still keep to their phones in the church,” he said.

He also agreed that it reduces productivity generally, when he said: “It reduces our contribution to the society. When you are supposed to do your work and you are busy with your phone all through, it will definitely affect your productivity. For you to be effective, you must deny yourself of certain things. You can’t be chatting and working at the same time and expect good result in terms of efficiency because your mind will be divided.”

Proffering solution to the menace, he said: “People need to be discouraged, sensitised and advised on how the social media should be used. If you want to read everything that is sent on your WhatsApp page, you will spend the whole day doing that. So, what time do you have for other activities? It is good for information, education, marketing and advertising, among others but when it is abused; it becomes a social menace because it affects you in family, school, church and work place among others.”

Mrs. Chineyere Anokwuru was almost getting addicted to her phone before she regained her consciousness. She also spoke on the development, decrying the practice of using earpiece and walking on the road. She described the habit as very dangerous and deadly.

“Sometimes, when I am driving, I will have to keep on hooting for these children to clear from the road but they will not hear because they have the earpiece on. It is very dangerous and with the use of these phones, these children do not concentrate on their studies,” she said.

As a way of curbing the excesses of young ones, regarding the use of phones, she suggested that the use of phones in schools should be prohibited. “I think schools should ban the use of phones up to secondary school level. When they are in higher schools, they are a little grown and they can manage themselves. But, seeing the children all the time on the phone is not good; it is very bad. They should focus more on their studies and their environment. They are working but their minds are somewhere else. I think it is very dangerous and I don’t support it all,” she submitted.

She also advised adult, who spend most of their time on phone to retrace their steps and use their time judiciously. She said: “As for adults, who are addicted to phone, it is good to be on social media but you can’t be on phone all the time and expect to have money. Except your business is on social media, you can’t meet up with your target. I will advise such adults to know why they are on social media. They spend so much time on the social media and at the end of the day, they come out emptier; nothing has been achieved. If you have a product to market, you can stay there and market it and leave, but if you don’t have any business on social media, you must map out your time and set aside how much time you want to spend there. That’s my advice.”