Addictions to smartphones are having devastating effects on Americans’ responsibility, commitment, and self-control capabilities, a recent study by the Financial Times found.
Colby Hall, founding editor of news outlet Mediaite, wrote in an op-ed that the study’s results are “beyond alarming” and demonstrate that the once-hyperbolic worry that screentime causes damage to brains is now a scientific fact.
According to the study, the capabilities of responsibility, follow-through, and self-control — all of which fall under the umbrella trait of “conscientiousness” — have plummeted among young adults aged 16 to 39. Neuroticism, agreeableness, and extroversion, are also down. The capabilities and traits of older adults, who aren’t addicted to their phones, have remained more stable.
The Financial Times wrote that smartphones and streaming services are likely related to the study’s findings, adding, “The advent of ubiquitous and hyper-engaging digital media has led to an explosion in distraction, as well as making it easier than ever to either not make plans in the first place or to abandon them.”
Hall noted that the study also shows how smartphone users are more committed to a digital world than the real one, while simultaneously moving away from trust and relationships with other people. He added that the shift away from consciousness and toward a deeper involvement with the digital world is causing a revolution bigger than the printing press created hundreds of years ago.
“When Gutenberg’s press arrived in the 15th century, it rewired the world by making knowledge scalable,” Hall wrote. “It took centuries for that transformation to ripple through every corner of human society. The smartphone has done something similar — only it’s moving at light speed, and in the opposite direction.”
Hall wrote that the massive progression of technology in such a short time has created an “infinitely stimulating ‘meta-world.’” Access to the meta-world is allowed at the price of losing the ability to have “deep, sustained focus.”
“The skill of delaying gratification, resisting impulse, and staying the course is being replaced by an addiction to novelty, validation, and stimulation,” Hall continued. “The more we indulge, the less we can resist indulging — and the chart’s freefalling red line for young adults shows exactly where that road leads. The speed of this shift should terrify us.”
Hall also pointed out that smartphones “have rewired how an entire generation thinks, feels, and relates to the world,” meaning that there is no way to undo the damage that has already been caused. Instead, he proposed starting with recognition of the problem, writing that unless the harm done to human focus can be realized, “there’s no hope of slowing the decline — much less reversing it.”