[Applause] [Music] did you know the 80% of children check their phones every five minutes crazy right hi everyone my name is Tanner Walton and today I'm going to be talking to you about cell phone addiction now I may have an addiction myself but that doesn't mean I can't talk about it in fact who knows it better than me there are many people with addictions different things but in my opinion cell phone addiction is a number one word now hold on a second I'm sure many of you are thinking that that's not me I'm not addicted
now take a second to think about how many times a day you use your phone or just check your phone what happens to you when you lose your phone are you calm and settled or do you freak out there are actually people who have a panic attack it's called nomophobia or as I personally like to call it no no phone obeah it is when you panic if you don't have your phone in your pocket or you can't find it I've seen this happen on many occasions in our house but don't feel alone in fact there
are 1.5 billion people in China 24 and many of them are suspected to be addicted to technology that is almost three-quarters of Canada's population it is so crazy that parents are putting their children into institutions to detoxify them of Technology but they are not the only ones having this problem it's happening in Britain Spain and several other countries and I believe that these detox centers will soon be in Canada now the big question is why are people so addicted well here's my answer take social media for an example every single time you post a photo
let's say in a matter of 10 seconds you get 4 likes well those 4 likes may be small but it affects your mind in a huge way those 10 seconds of happiness sends a message to your brain saying I want more so then you post another photo and another photo just to see how many likes you get now you are spending every five minutes of your day checking to see if someone liked your photo even if that someone is from across the world and you've never met them before that's on like a pretty big waste
of a day to me but it is not just kids I'm talking about its adults too it's like people don't talk to people have you ever been to a restaurant and two people aren't on a date they don't even look at each other they are too busy on their devices talking to someone else or screenshotting their dinner and sending it to someone that isn't even there Wow a nice date night great spending time with you and your phone it's like we live in a virtual world where we can't even feel comfortable with the people we
love we are always looking at or thinking about what other people are doing there is another aspect of this attachment to technology we don't even talk to each other in the same household for instance some families text each other in the same house why don't they just talk to each other is it too far away to go up and down three floors but hey we still have a generation of people who use the landline to communicate I swear every time our phone rings at home I know exactly who it is telemarketers or my 70 year
old grandparents they just learned how to use a phone they get mad at us if we don't want to talk for a long time about horses or the farmyard or things that they did and way back in the 1900s but we have more important things to do with our time like go on our cell phones we don't have a lot of things to talk about but hey they can text us and we'll answer right away we are available we just don't want to talk okay okay there is something seriously wrong with this I admit it
hey hey what's up yeah oh sorry I'm actually a bit busy right now can I call you back that's embarrassing so sorry about that this is another common problem of today it's called phubbing it is a word used to subscribe when people pay more attention to their device than the people right in front of them has that ever happen to you sometimes when I'm not allowed to take my phone to school or I forget it my day is drastically different imagine going to school to see all your friends and everyone is on their device talking
to someone else on social media or playing video games it's like we've forgot about the human connection it is pretty hard to put your phone down especially everyone around you has won speaking of human connection did you know that there are actually signs set up at my local hockey rink to tell people to put their phone away so they can pay attention to their own kid playing hockey but there's another aspect it's the sleep people even sleep with their devices next to them they use them for alarm clocks or sleep apps to help them get
to sleep it's a chronic problem everywhere did you know that the blue light actually affects the release of melatonin in your brain you need this to tell your brain to rest that is why some people are so high-energy before bed hopping your phone beside your bed has side effects like digital eye strain increased illnesses and even car accidents due to lack of sleep people that they even drive with their cell phones they are too busy worried about what someone has to say on their phone rather than paying attention to the road and I do think
we have reason to worry as cell phones are responsible for a lot of car accidents here's a quick fact did you know that driving 90 kilometres an hour reading in five second text message is equivalent to traveling a football field blindfolded wrapping things up as I think we could all talk about many other problems with cell phones the one thing that I have found is that we really need to be connecting more with each other one of the best times in my life so far was going away to summer camp last year Rock Ridge Canyon
a tech free camp kids were told to leave all devices at home it was not an option and yes I'll admit it it was tough to give it up for a week but I'm glad I did as I had the chance to go in some amazing adventures and make some real human connections with people I still talk to you today I mean I'm myself and of course so if you take anything away from what I just said it would be my advice to you is to pay attention to the little things that make you happy
enjoy the moments that are right in front of you and as Steve Jobs once said your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life thank you [Applause]
