The Embarrassing Reality of the Smartphone Era

Not long ago, I gave lectures to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I asked them to raise their hands if they have their own smartphones. It was unbelievable!—almost all of them did though the phones cost around thousands of dollars.
Now the smartphones are easily accessible even to kids. But the phones' functions are beyond imagination of adults who just receive phone calls, take pictures, use free text message service such as Kakaotalk, or read daily news. Via the smartphones, children can have access to movies, soap operas, and games with pornographic or violent scenes that we cannot even bear to see and they are provided under the name of 'culture'.
The contents people should never see are reachable with just pressing a few buttons. Shopaholics can enjoy online shopping 24 hours a day. This is the generation when anybody can become addicts without knowing. Now the world becomes the place where people can do everything with smartphones that are the combination of broadcasting, communication, and tech-gadgets.
As the number of smartphone users increases, the hours of their use also increase. The smartphones convey information in a convenient and quick way. However, they cause people not to be able to take their eyes off of them when they are on buses or subways or behind the wheel when driving, and even when they have a meal with the family. You might have heard that some people hear imaginary ringtones of smartphones.
The playground in some schools are empty during breaks, and most students sit separately and play games or surf the Internet with their smartphones. They ostracize their friends using SNS or use extremely violent language that should not be tolerated online.
Although they are grouped together, their eyes are on their smartphones. When they text somebody, they check their phones constantly and if the response is late they feel upset. So there are frequent misunderstanding and quarrels. They cannot control their emotions and impulses and they seemingly cannot function if their phones are left at home. Worse, they send long messages regardless of time and place. It causes people's brains to change. This is the reality of people in this digital generation.


Disadvantages of Quick and Convenient Information Delivery Gadget, Smartphone

Popcorn Brain is the current moniker for a brain so accustomed to the constant stimulation of electronic multitasking that they become unfit for life offline, where things pop at a much slower pace. The world of smartphones is full of stimulating content and it changes quickly and continuously. As people are getting used to it, the real world no longer stimulates their brains due to its slow speed. So, their emotions become dulled and they rarely respond to things in the real world.
A qualitative scientific research in China has given insights that too much time spent online can actually physically change the brain, reducing the gray matter and therefore limiting the thinking part of the brain. Children should be more careful about it since their brains have not been completely developed. Children with popcorn brains are slower than ordinary ones to react to flickering lights in an experiment where they should clap to the light flickering. This also causes them to show ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), impulse control disorder, poor interpersonal skill, or anxiety disorder.
Also, the constant and repetitive stimulations caused by smartphones lead to the development of the left hemisphere. This leads to the side effects of the right hemisphere syndrome. A person who is "left-brained" is often said to be more logical, analytical and objective, while a person who is "right-brained" is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective. Excessive use of smartphones hampers the development of right hemisphere, which negatively influences kids' creativity and sociability. It also impedes the balanced development of both hemispheres of brain which allows for them to process information.
What is even worse, Right Brain Syndrome can lead to 'TIC Disorder' or 'Digital Dementia'. Digital Dementia here refers to the symptom of individuals who rely heavily on technology, such as mobile phones or computers, suffering deterioration in the abilities to calculate and cognitive abilities such as short term memory dysfunction. For example, some are not able to remember their parents', children's or close friends' phone numbers or even what they ate the previous day. Or, there are very few songs they can sing unless the screen shows the lyrics. They feel more comfortable using keyboards than to write by hand. There are many additional symptoms and disorders.
Heavy use of smartphones causes amblyopia, pain in the eyes, and eye fatigue. It also leads to forward head posture, and carpal tunnel syndrome. If we use smartphones surfing the Internet, reading web cartoons, playing games, and sending text messages before going to sleep, our brains wake up due to the bright lights from the phones. Then, we cannot have sound sleep, which leads to lack of sleep and problems in our daily lives.


The reasons why we have to understand the signs of the end time and adorn ourselves as brides of the Lord

I can say to you, we who are in this generation, cannot avoid effects of such media and technology. No matter if it is by our own will or not, we are exposed to all kinds of electronic media gadgets and contents full of sins and evil. The side effects are unavoidable. If we are addicted to them we cannot help but be under their control. Frequent smartphone hacks are one of the evidences.
Revelation chapter 13 depicts the beasts that will control the whole world during the Seven-year Great Tribulation. It refers to antichrist or the supercomputer that the antichrist uses to save information of all the people of all nations and to dominate and rule over the whole earth.
The antichrist will enjoy absolute power and gain control of the world politics, economy, and military forces. This is because the enemy devil and Satan will help and cause them to dominate the world as they want. So, during the Seven-year Great Tribulation, the antichrist will have an unmatched level of authority and power. With this, they will oppose God and persecute believers in the Lord.
Therefore, the God of love has been pouring down the Spirit like a waterfall at this end time so that the power of recreation of the Spirit can be fully performed through the original voice and by it we can overcome the power of the antichrist. Ever since He resurrected and ascended into heaven, the Lord has been preparing saved people's heavenly dwelling places and He will come again to take God's beloved children and hold the Seven-year Wedding Banquet in the air.
Then, as God's beloved children who have accepted Jesus Christ, received the Spirit as a gift, and kept His commands, what should we do watching the signs of the end time written in the Bible?
Apostle Paul delivered the earnest love of God in the inspiration of the Spirit:

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).



Dongwon Seo

Head of Special Project Team in Planning and Production Department, GCN TV

PhD. Graduate School of Media
in Sogang University (Media Studies)
MFA. Graduate School of Media
in Sogang University (Media Arts)
BA. School of Arts in Chungang University (Creative Writing and Film Studies)