Is the Cellphone a Devil?

by Wayne Qian

Is the cellphone a devil? Dr. Margaret Mansour, GCC’s mental health counselor on Garfield Campus, gave a definite answer, “Yes.”

For the past four to five semesters, I’ve invited her to give a talk on mental health to my Non-Credit Level 5 students every semester. But in her talk on October 21, 2014, she used for the first time a derogative term to describe the cellphone.

And it was not much a surprise for me.

Dr. Mansour walked up to a student and grabbed the cellphone off her desk. And this was what she actually said:

The cellphone has reduced many Americans’ hours of sleep down to 3 to 5 hours a night; it is far from enough, which is 7 to 8 hours. Many people take their cellphone into the bedroom so as to keep themselves available to their friends and relatives 24/7. The deprivation of sleep is now such a hazard to mental health that doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and other such people consider it one of the most serious health challenges today.

Obviously, the advance of technology has many benefits, including, but not limited to, easy communication. One has repeatedly heard reports of the cellphone saving the life of a person in the nick of time. That is all very good. But technological advances have been accompanied by problems unheard of in the past. Sophisticated gadgets such as iPhones, iPads, and tablets have subjected their users to an inordinate amount of stress and made their lives wretched and miserable.

The cellphone is designed to serve people and make their life richer and easier, but it turns out that many people have become slaves to their own gadget, subjecting themselves to its cruel abuse. They are not owners of, but slaves to, their cellphone. What a shame!

To enslave oneself to the cellphone demonstrates to the fullest degree those people’s immaturity. They might be adults in terms of age, ranging from their 20s to 50s, but psychologically and emotionally they are not able to control themselves  - one of the most fundamental activities required of adults - and unable to find balance between work and rest. They don’t recognize the single most important truth in life: no one can work intolerably long hours, say 16 or 18 hours for days on end.

Devils try every trick to trap people in misery and misfortune. And unfortunately those people have fallen into the devil’s trap.

Beware of the devil’s dirty tricks, my dear reader.

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