Advertisement
“Phubbing. A situation where a person completely devotes their attention to their smartphone despite your presence with them. This commonplace act orchestrated by the charm and hook of social media is growing rapidly into being one toxicant pulling apart relationships in the society. You find almost everywhere you go people on their smartphones. At the eatery, people eat and press their phones. On the bus, no one utters a word throughout a journey because they are all engrossed with features on their smartphones. At home, the TVs are gradually phasing out with everyone rather interested in the speed at which information drops on their social media handles. This reality as exciting as it is individually steals from us as it rids us of opportunities to bond as family members, workplace colleagues, party guests, commuters and community members.”
Just as with almost everything, there is the downside and there is the upside. For technology, especially digitalization, the broadness it spreads is as no less to the division it causes. Many today will look back at digitalization and lose count of the number of advantages it has brought them and barely less people will have tales of regrets occasioned by digitalization.
It used to be the young generation crazy with the preoccupation of social media on their mobile phones so that they end up whiling away significant amount of time chatting and browsing on the internet. Today the fever of social media has infected the older generation who semmed to be equally invested in the seemingly ‘silver lining’ that has a borderline irresistible pull and of course, a pool of opportunities for career, personal and business growth.
Over 1 billion people in the world today are lodged on the internet for reasons as different as their faces. It has ceased being a hypotheses of the new gravitation in the world to being a reality where the world orbits and society must harness for sustainability and development.
However, sadly, this supposed goldmine rather than being a tool for community integration as creased itself into being a fulcrum for community disintegration, or rather humans have chosen to make it so. A lot of relationships which society is all about has been thrown into jeopardy by the supposed goldmine of technology, initiating a sort of conflicts that were never existent in mankind.
Phubbing. A situation where a person completely devotes their attention to their smartphone despite your presence with them. This commonplace act orchestrated by the charm and hook of social media is growing rapidly into being one toxicant pulling apart relationships in the society. You find almost everywhere you go people on their smartphones. At the eatery, people eat and press their phones. On the bus, no one utters a word throughout a journey because they are all engrossed with features on their smartphones. At home, the TVs are gradually phasing out with everyone rather interested in the speed at which information drops on their social media handles. This reality as exciting as it is individually steals from us as it rids us of opportunities to bond as family members, workplace colleagues, party guests, commuters and community members.
And that’s not where it stops as it has morphed into being a cankerworm that creates conflicts and chaos in relationships with couples, friends, parents and their children, every now and then, having reasons to grumble about the lack of attention they get from the other because they find it hard to keep their phones away while in their presence, as such, some information gets missed and the motivation for communication drains out.
There is nothing as powerful as attention in relationship. And there is no wheels that move the dynamic of relationship other than communication. The combination of both makes for an effective force that motions any relationship to the mutual end of the parties thereof. It is important that we honour this part of social relationship and learn to keep our phones away when communication with a person is in motion.
Here are some ways to avoid phubbing in social relationship, thereby avoiding the conflicts that come with it:
Ask for an excuse politely when you have to use your phone amid a conversation.
If you can, it is advised you put your phone on silence and perhaps in your bag, so as to avoid not being distracted.
Attend to all important digital tasks before a sit-down with a person.
Make it a habit to create a family time where phones are not allowed but physical communication with one another alone.
Respect each other be you peer or couples that you value the time you spend with them to the invasion of smartphones.
We can really avoid so many societal foibles if we start taking deliberate steps towards regaining control over what we were supposed to have sovereignty over — and not the other way round.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.” —Philippians 2:3
Professor. Ofonime Emmanuel Bassey is a Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution Coach with decades of experience in the practice and promotion of Law Enforcement, Peace and Security through the Nigeria Police and the United Nations.
He is an advocate of Peace Leadership and Child Protection.
He has served and interacted at the top level management of the Nigeria Police as well as internationally as a United Nation’s Monitor/Mentor in Kosovo, Europe.
A professor of Peace Advocacy and Conflict Resolution, Dr. O.E Bassey is a certified United Nation’s Trainer, and currently the Director of ICOF Institute of Leadership, Peace and Conflict Resolution in Africa.
With his marks well-established in Peace Leadership both in Nigeria and Africa. Currently, he is the President, NISSI Safety Management Institute: An Institute of Peace Leadership.
Presently, he is spearheading a campaign tagged “The Next Peace Leaders”, a campaign that is billed to run from 2022-2023 with a target of training 37,000 young peace leaders.
For peace and security tips, consultations and trainings, reach him via:
Facebook: Dr. O.E Bassey
LinkedIn: Dr. O.E Bassey
Twitter: Dr. O.E Bassey
WhatsApp: +2347065828892
Mail: EmmanuelBassey@gmail.com
Share your story or advertise with us: Whatsapp: +2347068606071 Email: info@newspotng.com
