Today, few people can imagine their lives without a smartphone, communication, and a continuous stream of information. Let’s add some statistics
– Social media users:
In 2024, the number of social media users reached 5.17 billion, which is 63.7% of the world’s population. This is an increase of about 150 million new users per year.
-Mobiledevices:
There are 8.92 billion active mobile connections worldwide, which is more than the world’s population, as many people use multiple devices.
We can see how the number of new users is growing and new challenges and risks for all of humanity are growing.
Going to any cafe, shopping center, or other crowded place, we can see people sitting at a table, walking down the street, and at the same time their attention is riveted on the smartphone screen. A couple who spend time together at the table do not communicate, but each in their own gadget. A child who is alone or in his/her own society also chooses a smartphone with a game or cartoon. This is a disastrous trend that develops various psychological problems in all these groups of people.
Watching children often, I began to notice their attention to the screen, and when their parents start to take away the smartphone, they start to have hysteria, screaming and crying. As a rule, these children always want to get everything at once and in this second, you can compare it to quickly getting a new video of a rally or video in a ticker when it swipes down. That is, one of the results of children’s dependence on smartphones is impatience and getting quick results from everything in life, “I want everything quickly and at once” as a result of anxiety, minimal concentration, and other consequences.
Back to adults, a few years ago, “quick videos” appeared, a tik-tok that revolutionized the digital space, reels on Instagram, shorts on YouTube. People started watching, filming, and repeating each other’s trends en masse to get likes and comments, not paying attention to the changes in mental health that were beginning to take place. Based on my observations and analysis, I want to highlight an interesting example. After our brains are accustomed to watching short videos, moving on quickly, I started to notice how difficult it became to watch movies, interviews, and other time-length videos. That is, our brains perceive digital dopamine, the nervous system has been reorganized and it has become difficult to keep attention, a complete lack of concentration on one topic in one video that lasts more than one minute. This turns into a daily addiction that completely changes our concentration and brings it to zero.
What do we get at the finish line? Minimal concentration in our favorite things, anxiety, dependence on digital dopamine, and this is just a small list of what we can get from “Fast video”
What to do about it? One of the most effective ways is to use Digital Detox to limit the hours you spend on social media and on your smartphone. Make a choice for natural dopamine that we get through sports, hobbies and real communication. Perhaps this can curb and take precedence over maintaining our physical and mental health.
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