Smartphone addiction, particularly among children, is altering the way we interact with one another. A member of the Kwon civic group in South Korea, Kim Nam-Hee, asked a classroom of 10 year old students compare the hours they spend on their smartphones with the time they spend interacting with relatives. She found a disturbing gap between the amount of digital and human interaction they were engaging in.
The consequences of this are very serious. Human interaction helps a child to develop emotionally and behaviourally in a way that communicating over smartphone cannot. It allows a child to see a person's emotional reaction and distinguish between what are good actions and bad actions. Texting, talking or social networking over a smartphone cannot accomplish this.
Adults are no less likely to become addicted to their smartphones though, and the costs are no less destructive. Staring at a screen, for instance, prevents the brain from releasing something that is called melatonin, our natural sleep chemical. As a result, our bodies don't register that we are tired. Overuse of smartphones therefore leads to interrupted sleeping patterns and means that we do not function as well throughout the day, affecting our abilities to work.