We live in an age where digital technology is key to
surviving; we Google, YouTube, Facebook, poke, search, tweet, pin, and post
minute-by-minute accounts of what happens in our everyday lives. The above movie poster shows how we have
become chained to our phones, hyper-connected to the devices meant to make our
lives easier. I can hear the
narration now for the trailer.
Next summer, Baldowski Films in association with Media Literacy
Productions brings you the next phase in suspense. Imagine a world where
the technology that normally relies on us for survival suddenly becomes in
charge. Don't hit send just yet,
because you are in... A Tangled Web!
We
have become so tangled up in our technology that we sometimes forget about the
real world happening around us. As
a media psychologist it is important to understand how we use our technology,
but also to make sure that our technology is not taking over our lives. As an experiment when creating the
above poster I took a week and examined not only my own behavior with my
technology but also those around me.
For
me, Facebook and Yahoo News were the first two things I looked at before
getting out of bed. I needed to
see what I missed in the few hours I was away from my phone while
sleeping. During lunches, those
around me would text, tweet, and update statuses online instead of talking to
the company sitting in front of them.
I found that I and many around me had become so attached to our mobile
devices that it was hard to break free of the chains we head placed on
ourselves by using the device. Jason Gilbert of the Huffington
Post wrote, "We are totally, hopelessly addicted, so much so that there is
now even a term for a fear of losing one's phone: nomophobia."
When
plugging my phone in to charge one night and having to step away from it
because the battery was dead, it had me asking: Who's really in charge?
References
Gilbert, J. (2012, April
16). Smartphone Addiction: Staggering Percentage Of Humans Couldn't Go One Day
Without Their Phone. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post.
Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/smartphone-addiction-time-survey_n_1791790.html
Lesonsky, R. (2012, March
23). Nomophobia, Fear Of Being Without A Mobile Phone, On The Rise: Survey
Says. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/nomophobia-fear-of-being-without-a-mobile-phone-on-the-rise_n_1375979.html
