Park Mi-seong
I take the subway on my way home. When I look around, all I see are eyes and fingers immersed in rectangular objects. From supposedly 50-year-old office workers to young children, almost everyone is caring about nothing else but their smart phones. It was not long ago when people read books or newspapers on the subway. However, abruptly, it seems like every person uses a smart phone. Smart phone has become “ubiquitous” to its users. People take it everywhere they go, even to the toilet, and often fall asleep while playing with it. To confess, I am also one of those people. Last year, when I did not have a smart phone, I could read books or memorize vocabularies while taking the subway. But now, I am so focused on Kakao Talk or Facebook that sometimes I almost missed my station. Sometimes I wonder, “Am I the owner of this iPhone or is the iPhone the owner of me?” and I came to realize how pathetic I was, wasting precious time blankly looking over the same screen dozens of times. As a result, I came up with the idea of surviving one day without my “bitten apple.” It was on Monday, the busiest day of my week, that I left home empty-handed. On the subway, I took out a notebook and thoroughly reviewed what I had learned in my English linguistics course. Never had 20 minutes felt so long. Getting off the train, I felt proud of myself for doing something worthy. During four classes, although I was bored for a while, I could concentrate more on the lessons. I took notes in detail because nothing disturbed me. It was during break times that I found myself feeling somewhat lonely and worried. Thoughts like “What if I missed some important messages or calls?” came to my mind, and I was eager to chat with my friends on Kakao Talk. Yet there was nothing I could do but wait until I went back home. After class, I went to the PC room to work on my assignment. Ordinarily, I would sit and play with my phone before and while doing homework. This time, however, I rushed into my homework as soon as I sat down. I could not believe that it only took me three hours to gather information and write a report because I had expected the assignment to take at least five hours. Being away from my smart phone made me extremely focused on my task and it showed significant results. During the subway ride home, surprisingly, all the thoughts and worries of the vacancy of my smart phone no longer lingered. Instead, I prided myself on spending a meaningful day. I felt peaceful and free. I realized how much the iPhone had bounded me and hindered me from thinking or appreciating things like nature. When I came home and checked my phone, there were a lot of Kakao Talk messages but only a couple of them were important. I had never spent my time so effectively ever since I had bought my smart phone. Neither have I wasted time constantly looking at my phone nor spent extra time on my tasks due to its distraction. It was a valuable experience for me which made me think about how addicted I had been to a machine until then. Give yourself a little rest away from your smart phones, and you will heal your spirit as well. Just try it, and you will see.
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