Sunday, 12 April 2015

Problem Solution Essay Draft 3- 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 population had anxiety when they couldn't use their phone (Piombino, 2014). Technology has made the situation worse. With the rapid technological advancement in telecommunication sector in Singapore, Singaporean teenagers grow up in an environment whereby phones are a form of necessity. The severity of the nomophobia disorder varies across different demographic groups, and the disparities are clearly visible in Singapore society. In the 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 on social media via their smartphones (iDA, 2012). In order to tackle Nomophobia as a major social problem, iDA should lead the entire operation and join forces with other relevant stakeholders especially schools and families to develop campaign and talks to warn teenagers of the harmful effects of nomophobia.

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 Wong (2014) quoting 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.” 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 impact of Nomophobia on teenagers far exceed that of adults as teenagers have less self-control and often 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 teenagers could affect Singapore social structure and cause negative repercussions that involve 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 decreases work/study efficiency (MACRAE, 2011). As a result, school results might be affected and effectiveness of learning might potentially drop.

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 the 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 far 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 fail to consider Nomophobia as a negative behaviour, and even when they realise this issue, they lack the necessary self-control to remedy the problem.

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, and it could initiate different sub-campaigns to encourage 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, whereby the MOE donate money to needy students to support their basic education. Similar to the UNICEF Tap project, every minute without social networking will contribute to students who need financial aid. By promoting this App to the youth population in Singapore, they are essentially helping members of their own community and people who they can relate to, even their friends. This will provide a greater motivation for them not to be over-dependent on mobile devices. In addition, iDA collaboration with schools and Community Centres (CC) will further increase the general awareness of Nomophobia. Through this collaboration, students and families will understand the damages that nomophobia might cause and prevent them from occurring.

While Singaporeans enjoy the convenience that cutting-edge telecommunication provides us, we cannot overlook the side-effect of having a digitally connected world. The Singapore government has the responsibility to mitigate these side-effects on Singaporeans, especially the future generation. Educational institutions 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.

[922 words]

References

iDA. (2012). Infocomm Technology Roadmap. 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. Dailymail. Retrieved 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). Entrepreneur.com. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230764
Wong, S. (2014, Augest 1). Feeling stressed without your phone? You may be suffering from nomophobia. Hardwarezone.com. Retrieved from http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/tech-news-feeling-stressed-without-your-phone-you-may-be-suffering-nomophobia


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