Not-So-Smart Phone

They have fast become an addiction in recent years; a gadget we can't seem to step outside without, get panic attacks when we can't feel it in our pocket and rarely leave out of our hands.

Can we even remember a time without a smartphone; when Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter didn’t exist? When you actually had to sit and talk to people without constantly glancing down at your phone for fear you might miss something.

We have become obsessed with our phones and have blurred the line between needing and wanting. We have become addicted, rude, disrespectful and clearly lack any kind of self-control. 

Is it really too much to ask to leave the bloody phone down when someone is trying to have a conversation with you?

Here are four of the most annoying things I've noticed...

Using your phone when someone is talking to you

This is possibly one of my biggest pet peeves. There is absolutely nothing worse than someone scrolling through their news feed while you are trying to have a conversation with them. They are oblivious to what they're doing and it's obvious they're not interested in one word you have to say so, what's the point? Seriously. If you’re going to be that anti-social why do you bother hang out with real life people where, God forbid, you might be subject to real life interaction?

Checking your phone every two seconds

Now don’t get me wrong, smartphones are essential for reminders, alarm clocks and to-do lists but the endless stream of notifications can also be annoying. A status update from Facebook or a notification from Pinterest to tell you you have a new follower are hardly essential updates or justify the need for you to check your phone every two seconds. As well as the ‘ping’ noise becoming super annoying, looking at your phone all the time is anti-social, distracting and can prevent you actually living in the real world.

Bringing your phone everywhere

Seeing people out walking with their phones yapping or texting away irks me like no other. Isn’t one of the main purposes of exercise to relieve stress and disconnect from the world for half an hour? As well as that how many times have we all had someone bang into us because they weren’t looking where they were going because they were too busy with their mobile phones? Just leave the phone at home already!

Using your phone when dealing with a cashier

Working in a shop for the last few years I have dealt with this one too many times. Would you wait in line then as soon as you get to the top of the queue wait a little bit longer while the person serving you takes a call or answers back a text message? I doubt it. Newsflash! You are not the only person in the queue. Other people are waiting, I have a million and one other things to do than wait for you to finish your conversation so stop being ignorant and get off the phone.



Photos c/o: Wordpress, hercampus.com and greenbot.com 

Snapping the FOMO away

Out with the old and in with the new, isn’t that what they say? But Snapchat users were sent into a frenzy and left feeling overly paranoid and annoyed about the popular app’s new updates. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were soon flooded with statuses complaining about the disappearance of the ‘top best friends’ feature on Snapchat. First world problems you might say, but when did we become so dependent on social media?

People questioned whether Snapchat was just temporarily broken and assured each other the ‘top friends’ would return. Others wondered aloud about the possibility of increased cheating in relationships now that no one can see who’s snapping who the most. Then there were those who complained about those complaining. The whole thing was a bit of an unwarranted, unnecessary fiasco.

Are we really so dependent on social media now? Are friends seriously falling out and relationships actually breaking up over apps like Snapchat? The answer simply is yes. I have heard too many stories about couples tearing the head off each other or, in some cases actually breaking up, over their other halves best friends on Snapchat.

For those of you out there who were genuinely worried about the new Snapchat update and the idea

of not being able to creep on your other halves best friends then it’s time to take a step back and remember the days before social media took over our lives. Snapchat best friends, Facebook ‘likes’, or Instagram’s ‘love’ button should not define or dictate a friendship or a relationship.

In this day and age it is almost impossible not to be sucked in to

the world of social media but unfortunately for us, like the best friends on Snapchat, a lot of other apps can also cause users a headache.

One of the most common things people experience when scrolling through their news feed is FOMO or Fear of Missing Out. For anyone not aware of the word, FOMO is the feeling you get when you see a status, Snapchat or video of people you know having a good time and you’re not there. You hover over said picture wondering why you weren’t invited, how they could possibly be having such a good time without you and, eventually, telling yourself you never wanted to go anyway.

As well as FOMO, so-called ‘life envy’ is another common problem people witness as a result of browsing through social media. Seeing someone you know with something that you want/need/aspire for is a basic definition of life envy and has been known to cause a green-eyed monster to appear via the keyboard.

Now that there is an unprecedented number of apps to keep track of it’s no wonder social media has turned perfectly sane, reasonable, sensible individuals into green-eyed, paranoid, creepy people.

Things can get really crazy really quick. My advice? Take a step back and move away from the keyboard.