Draft 1 Nomophobia
Nomophobia, the abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone-phobia",
is a psychological disorder that is caused by the fear of being out of mobile
phone connection. A study done by a U.K university claims that some 53% of the
city population had anxiety when they couldn’t use their phone (Piombino,
2014).
Technology has not come to the rescue, on the contrary, technology has made it
worse. With the rapid technological advancement in telecommunication sector in
Singapore, our teenagers grew up in an environment that phones are
a form of
necessity. The severity of disorder varies across different demographic groups
and the disparities is clearly visible in Singapore society. In Infocommunication
Development Authority’s (iDA) Technology Roadmap, teenagers age 15 – 24 spend
an average of 7.3 hours daily on social networking platforms and with a
smartphone penetration rate of over 90%, a large percentage of these hours are
spent via their smartphones (iDA, 2012).
By
understanding the biochemical chain of reaction that caused Nomophobia, we can
conclude that smartphone addiction is similar to other addictions as it
involves a dysregulation of dopamine. A local article by Sidney
Wong quoted Dr. David Greenfield, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
at the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine explained “Every time you get a notification from
your phone, there’s a little elevation in dopamine that says you might have
something that’s compelling, whether that’s a text message from someone you
like, an email, or anything,” (Wong, 2014). The same article pointed out that mobile phones are
no longer a tool for communication, but a major channel to fulfil human nature
of being a social animal. The negative impacts of Nomophobia on teenagers far
exceed that of adults as teenagers has less self-control and easily influenced
by external environment. The fear of being left out from their social circles
forces them to constantly check and be active on their mobile phones.
The
influence Nomophobia has over the teenagers could affect our social structure
and brings about negative repercussions that involves their families, social
circles and even the entire society. Many teenagers prefers to communicate with
other people via phones and avoid face-to-face interactions, this reduces
their connectivity with the rest of the society and cause unnecessary friction within
families. Furthermore, constant usage of mobile phones is one of the top distractions
that actually decrease work/study efficiency (MACRAE, 2011). As a result school
result and curriculum will be
affected and effectiveness of learning will drop significantly.
Despite
the increased amount of attention on Nomophobia, no cure or prevention method
has been proven to effective against it. The most common measure to deter Nomophobia
has been online articles and videos that increase awareness of Nomophobia. For example,
online communities such as Singapore Hardware zone and Straits Times forum that
allow advocates to voice their opinions and suggest solutions for this issue. In
such articles, self-help measures are being suggested as recommendation for mobile
phone addicts.
However,
this efforts in combating Nomophobia is for from sufficient. Purely increasing
awareness will not deter teenagers from falling into the trap of Nomophobia and
within the youth community, there is no powerful influence to mitigate the peer
influence and the strong culture of mobile social networking. As mentioned earlier,
most teenagers failed to consider Nomophobia as a negative behaviour and even
when they realised this issue, they lack the necessary self-control to remedy
the problem.
In
order to tackle Nomophobia as a major social problem, Singapore government
should spearhead the entire operation and join forces with other relevant
stakeholders especially schools and families. iDA which oversees all media
related issue should consider including Nomophobia in the latest Technology
Roadmap. Just like Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) healthy lifestyle campaign, iDA
could initiate an island-wide campaign to increase Singaporean’s awareness,
roll out different sub-campaigns to allow Singaporeans to understand how
over-usage of mobile phone and social networking can be harmful. To effectively
reach out to the teenage population, Social media mobile campaigns should be
the main form of engagement. A good example should be UNICEF Tap Project, a
project to donate clean to third world countries via a mobile app. iDA can
adopt a similar system with a similar app that tracks the amount of time spent
on social networking platforms by a user and incentivise users to reduce usage.
A possible incentive can be Ministry of Education’s (MOE) School Pocket Money Project,
every minute without social networking will contribute to students who need financial
aid. By promoting it to the youth population in Singapore, they are essentially
helping members of their own community and people who they can relate to, even
their friend. This will provide a greater motivation for them not to be over-dependent
on mobile devices. In addition, collaboration with schools and Community Centres
(CC) will further increase the general awareness of Nomophobia.
As
technology advances, it brings about both positive and negative impacts on our
society. While we enjoy the convenience that cutting-edge telecommunication
provides us, we cannot overlook the side-effect of having a digitally connected
world. Singapore government has the responsibility to mitigate these
side-effects on Singaporeans, especially the future generation. Educational
institution that interact directly with these teenagers too have a significant
influence over them. Most importantly, the motivation to change must come from within
the youth community, self-motivation and regulation is the only way to solve
the root of issue.
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References:
iDA. (2012). Infocomm
Technology Roadmap. Singapore: iDA. Retrieved from
https://www.ida.gov.sg/~/media/Files/Infocomm%20Landscape/Technology/TechnologyRoadmap/SocialMedia.pdf
MACRAE, F. (2011,
Augest 4). Mobile phones and laptops given to workers actually DECREASE
productivity. Retrieved from Dailymail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2022440/Mobile-phones-laptops-given-workers-actually-DECREASE-productivity.html
Piombino, K.
(2014, Jan 12). The Guide to Surviving Without Your Smartphone
(Infographic). Retrieved from entrepreneur.com:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230764
Wong, S. (2014,
Augest 1). Feeling stressed without your phone? You may be suffering from
nomophobia. Retrieved from Singapore Hardwarezone:
http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tech-news-feeling-stressed-without-your-phone-you-may-be-suffering-nomophobia
