How did you like it the last time you saw your friends? Did you have a nice chat with them? Or were you all only taking pictures of your meals to post them on Instagram and talking to each other on Facebook?<\/p>\n
You must admit, this is a legit question about something that happens all too often. There\u2019s a lot of talk about smartphone addiction \u2014 it has other names such as nomophobia or cell phone vibration syndrome.<\/p>\n
But if we look into the matter deeper, is it a disease? Or is it something made up by old fogies and doctors \u2013 the same people who frightened us with stories about the Internet and video games and how they would ruin our lives?<\/p>\n
After all, what is so terrible about checking my email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Vine, Tumblr, Google+ and some 20 more applications every half hour?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The need to know everything that is going on around us falls under the category of primitive instincts, says psychologist Nicholas Carr,\u00a0who studied the issue of what the Internet is doing to our brains<\/a>. There was a time when \u201chunger for information\u201d helped our cave-dwelling ancestors to survive. Today, when the information available is, mildly speaking, excessive, the instinct doesn\u2019t always work to our advantage \u2014 rather, it\u00a0hampers our normal lives.<\/p>\n It is the same as gaining body fat. There was a time when the storage of fat around the waist helped people to live through the tough times of hunger, thus increasing their chances to survive. Nowadays, an excess of it hurts your ability to compete (though you still need a reasonable amount of it to be healthy).<\/p>\n