As Nomophobia Increases, Time Seems to Pass Quicker
This past year for me has gone by quicker than any year before. Reflecting on 2018, it seems like I was eating King Cake one moment then preparing Thanksgiving dressing and turkey the next. Like most southerners, I look back on my year through the lens of holidays involving food.
In conversations with my friends, I have formed a theory . . . no, a hypothesis. Well, let’s be honest, this is simply a wild guess. Just hear me out! As we integrate phones with our lives more every year, our mobile screen time increases, causing our awareness of actual time in hours and seconds to decrease. We become more removed from our tangible, physical, “real” surroundings, and time seems to pass more quickly.
Here’s a breakdown if you like lists.
Phone integration increases
Mobile screen time increases
Our awareness of actual time decreases
Time seems to pass quicker
What Do I Mean By Screen Time?
I don’t mean the time you get shown in a film on camera. I don’t work in the movie industry. I do, however, work in digital marketing! I’m talking about the time you spend on your phone, specifically. Laptops and computers would typically count in this too. For this blog, though, let’s stick to mobile addiction, so I don’t have to write an extra 5 paragraphs.
Phones have become one of the most vital parts of our lives. We reach for them when we wake up, scroll through them before going to bed, shop on them, order food with them, talk to each other through them, and even maintain our houses using them.
Scientists Prove Manipulating Time Is Possible
In a simple Google search, I found a few articles, and — BAM — I’ve discovered scientists have already proven that under certain conditions, the subjective sense of how much time has passed feels different. A 'New Scientist' article basically explains that when an individual is under stress, for example, this experience alters the amount of chemicals such as adrenalin in the brain. Scientists know adrenalin affects the rate of neuronal activity. If this is true about stress, can’t it be true about other variables? The constant is not stress, but it is the subjective sense of time passing.
Nomophobia: Mobile Phone Addiction
The rising addiction to cell phones and mobile devices is not necessarily the fault of those afflicted by it, in my opinion. Right now, the digital boom is in every industry. Whether or not you want to, it is difficult to find other means to survive as a business and keep up with the times without more cell phone usage.
Coined by CNN, nomophobia stands for “No Mobile Phone Phobia.” Statistics support that people in the U.S. aren’t simply using their phone, they are showing signs of addiction to them.
Surveys by the Pew Research Center this year showed that 77% of Americans own smartphones, which is up from 35% in 2011. On average, Americans are opening their phones 150 times a day. We open Facebook 50 of those times, by the way. SEE MORE BLOGS ABOUT FACEBOOK
More Screen = Less Awareness
If you’ve ever questioned this, just attend any concert, drive someone in your vehicle to a place they need to go, see a fireworks show, have a heart attack in public, or cross the street.
In my experience…
At concerts, there are more people filming with their iPhones than taking in the experience.
Oftentimes your passenger won’t repay the favor of you driving them by providing you with undivided attention and good company. Lord knows most of you are on your phone while driving anyway, which is a terrible idea. Hopefully, you realize this before you kill someone.
People spend more time taking videos of fireworks than enjoying the excitement of the show with someone special. I’m not sure why. Does it truly look the same in the footage? Do people watch these videos again later?
More people will likely take a quick video of you having a heart attack in public than actually do anything to save your life.
42% of pedestrians who cross the road as the “Don’t Walk” signal is flashing are on their smartphone.
In Conclusion… Live In The Time You Have!
To tell the same story backward, phone addiction is real. It even has a name. And it inhibits our awareness. Scientists have proven that inhibitors of our awareness do manipulate our perception of time. So, I think the reason we all keep feeling like “time is going by quicker” every year is because we’re spending more time entranced by our screens, becoming less aware of actual time and actual surroundings.
Here’s my advice. Take back your time. Live life in the real world. Limit your screen time (you can do this in your phone settings). Form a habit of only checking it for specific reasons, like work and email, then check it at specific times for everything else. This is your time on earth. How much of it do you want to spend staring into pixels?