Commentary & Analysis: Smartphone Stockholm Syndrome

Taken from skotgat.com

Have you ever sat down to lunch with a couple of friends, hoping to have a conversation, only to be greeted with stony silence by zombies with illuminated faces, whose heads are tilted downwards at a 45 degree angle?

For those of you who have, I feel your pain. If you have not noticed this, then you are probably guilty of inflicting the pain. The pain of what I call “Smartphone Stockholm Syndrome”. This may sound a little over the top, but I assure you, it is a very serious condition.

Smartphone Stockholm Syndrome put simply is when you have been made captive by the Smartphone, but love it because it treats you well, not dissimilar to the actual Stockholm Syndrome. This condition affects several youth in Singapore, and is spreading like wildfire to other age groups (I know this from personal experience, even my mother has it). Those who have not been made captive by a Smartphone are indirectly affected by the condition, because like me, they have been neglected because of the Smartphones.

As someone whose phone is affectionately labelled ‘the brick’, you may say I am a technological fuddy-duddy. What I look for in a handphone is the ability to call, text, and store some basic media such as music and pictures. I do not like using the Internet on my handphone, the same way I do not like drying the clothes in the microwave.

Buying smartphones has become a domino effect. A couple of your friends buy them, then more and more until you are peer pressured into buying one because all your friends are on What’s App. To the brave ones who have resisted, I salute you, as I know this is not an easy task.

My main issue with Smartphones is not the device itself, but what it does to us. Face-to-face communication is something that bonds us and keeps us sane with all the stress around us. Being able to rant to your friends about all the homework you have or debate about insignificant movie trivia is what help us form relationships.

But when you are met with silence or when your debate is cut short with a quick Google search from your opposer’s smartphone, our ability to communicate with each other and form relationships is impeded.

It is ironic that one of our greatest strengths has become one of our greatest weaknesses. The human thirst for knowledge has gotten us this far, made us able to advance so fast technologically, making it easy for us to access information. But this has also made us dependant on the Internet, and we have become impatient.

I am not totally against Smartphones. They can be rather useful. There are a wealth of apps that can help guide you when you are lost or let you make long-distance phone calls for free. But everything is good in moderation.

So to those who are suffering from Smartphone Stockholm Syndrome I beseech you to put down that phone and have a conversation with those around you. Humans are very influenced by the community around them, and it would be a shame to lose our desire to communicate with one another face to face. It would make us robotic, and we still have time to change.