Do We Ever Really Experience Being Bored?

As much as I regret to admit it, I’m attached to my phone. I’m constantly reaching into my pocket to check the time, make sure I haven’t gotten a new update, or to send a message. I do this even when I’m not talking to anyone! It’s become an addiction, having to make sure I’m not missing anything, and I'm not the only one who has this problem. Seventy-five percent of the world population has a cell phone, and that number will only increase. With the creation of new technology portions of life have become easier. Technology has changed the way we go through life. It’s made talking to people easier, as well as keeping up with the lives of others. However, the effects have affected the aspects of our lives that don’t include technology.

Is boredom really that bad? Some studies show that people who can't cope with boredom are most likely to abuse alcohol and drugs. Boredom can also lead to agony. But in the past boredom was just a fact of life. Boredom can be damage someone mentally and physically.

“Furthermore, 15 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict; 30 percent called it a "doorway into the world"; 25 percent found the phone "dangerously alluring" and 41 percent said losing their iPhone would be "a tragedy." (Citied by Dan Hope, TechNewsDaily 2010).

creative, and daydreaming. Some say boredom is the worst, but with facts and research it's

hear the echoes today in the spaciousness and considered quality of such documents as the

Cellphone and social media usage has been climbing in recent years. It is not uncommon to see people’s noses buried in their phone screens. According to Lulu Chang from Digital Trends, the average American spends 4.7 hours a day doing things on his or her phone. The average American also checks social media 17 times that same day.

A. Attention Getter: Four Years of your life is wasted to what’s sitting inside all of your pockets right now; your cellphone. The average person spends roughly 90 minutes a day playing on their phone, whether it’s checking emails, Snapchatting or scrolling through your Twitter feed. According to The Dailymail.com we unlock our phones at least 110 times per day! We’ve become almost dependent on these devices over time, and it needs to stop. We rely on our phones everyday to wake us up for school and to know the time of day.

In this editorial, Live Science writer Kelly Dickerson found in a study that people who pulled out cell phones throughout a discussion found the conversation less rewarding. She claims that the compulsion to check our cell phones and the essential to stay tied into the straight network system can make people withdraw from their current activities, and it can produce anger between them and their family and friends. Cell phones are not only taking away the time alone to damage our associations with others, but we have similarly lost the incapability with people without watching at our phones and being present with another person.

“…are symptoms of how technology captures our attention and disrupts our connections” (Goleman 5). The more people are on their phones, the smaller the opportunity is to look someone in the eyes and have a human moment—to talk, to share, to comfort. Living in Seattle, I’ve used public transportation plenty of times and in all those times, I’ve noticed no one is looking at one another or outside—everyone is glued to their own phones. Go into a crowded room full of people—regardless of age—and the majority will be on their phones instead of communicating with one another. “You know it’s not right to check your phone when you’re with someone, but it’s addictive” (Goleman 8). While some may see nothing wrong in constantly checking your phone, the majority recognize it is an issue, but decide to overlook it. The ability people have in quickly overlooking a major issue, despite age or gender, proves the level of addiction towards our technological

Are we addicted to our cell phones? This is a common question that has arisen in the past several years as our phone technology and capabilities continue to increase. According to recent statistics, 85% of the U.S. population are cell phone users (Chen).We Americans use our cell phones to do just about everything. We talk, text, check our E-mail, surf the Internet, and interact in social networking, all on our phones. Because our phones have become so resourceful to us in our everyday lives, many say that cell phones have become addicting. Cell phones in today 's life have become very addicting to many people, and there are many ways in which to show how they are addicting.

I believe that many people tend to over dose the usage of technology and I am one of the victims. In the article 'Driven to distraction' by Emma Sue Prince, she mentions that 'screens and phones are addictive because our brain is hardwired to find reward in the unpredictable.' And I think that that's one of the reasons why most of us fall onto this trap. I honestly am the type of person to check my phone habitually, even if I don't receive any notifications, it's just that I have the urge to do so; just to check my social media and be up to date such as twitter and Instagram and I can relate that to Johann Hari's article Johann Hari: How to survive the age of distraction' where he says that "Ask me to throw away a book, and I begin shaking

In “Jessie Brown: Who Says Smartphone Addiction is bad thing? The case for constant connectivity” (Brown, 2012), Brown claims that the cellphone is not the problem, in fact, it is the person and how they choose to value their time while using smartphones.

The cell phone has become a centerpiece of everyday life as cell phones are evolving and have been increasing their functionalities. Today, we use them today for many others reasons than what cell phones were originally designed to do. People are using them so often that they are becoming dependent on their phones that they have even become addicted to them. Those who are addicted to their cell phones struggle to stay away from them for a certain period of time and become so indulged in all of the unique things they can provide. With cell phone addiction comes many problems or issues that can occur in an individual’s life. Cell phone addiction has lead to differences in people mentally, physically, and behaviorally.

Over the past week I have been keeping track of my media use. I discovered I lead a pretty repetitive technological lifestyle. Weekday mornings I start my media consumption via my alarm clock on my cell phone. Why not use the regular alarm clock? Because with a cell phone I do not have to get up and out of bed in the morning- the snooze button is even closer to my barely awake fingertips. After hitting the snooze button at least once I make a point to check out Facebook because we all know everyone is constantly updating at 5:45 every morning.

Blacker (2006) discusses how researchers from the Henley Management College interviewed people about their mobile phone usage and almost half of a study group of men and women in their twenties and thirties revealed that they "could not live without" their mobile phone.