Millions of people are obsessed with their phones. Some studies show they can barely go minutes without looking, so obsessed they are. So addicted. A new text, a message on TikTok... distracted from schoolwork, math, reading, studying, instead obsessively looking at phones. Or thinking about it. Teachers nationwide will attest to the challenge of getting students to concentrate - to get their minds off their cells and focus on school. Is this not addiction? 

Adults obsess over social media posts, a new text, inattentive to work or driving 50 or 60 miles an hour. Adults obsessively reading dubious news sources, perhaps created by bots, China, Iran, Russia. They believe what they read. It breeds political extremism, anger, crazy ideas. Is this not addiction? 

Daily I see in subways and streets people staring at their phone, walking in crowded stairways… subway platforms as trains approach… crowded sidewalks… busy streets. Dangerous and terrible judgment. Disregard for others. 

Not a word is said to them… no public service announcements. Their whole lives parents never said it’s dangerous, irresponsible?  Schools never mentioned how dangerous it is?  Even more sickly:  people staring at phones while driving 65 mph on highways.  Flagrant recklessness.  And what is ever said? 

Of course, politicians are too busy spitting out rage, thinking little why they were elecged and about helping others.  Anger… yet another dangerous addiction.

So what can we do about it? Free speech and First Amendment rights cannot allow government to intervene, yet government can help through education - encouraging people to look less at their phone, pay attention to their surroundings, schoolwork… life itself. And the psychiatry profession can recognize obsession with cell and Internet as an addiction that needs treatment. 

That cell in your hand is part of life. There’s good that comes from it, but harm we overlook. Too much of anything is dangerous. You don’t need cocaine or heroin to be addicted. All you have to do is be distracted, obsessed, unable to concentrate on surroundings - like your teacher in the classroom or when driving a car. Or knowing the difference between truth and fakery when reading "news" online.

It’s time to look in the mirror and see what we have become... are we addicted? It is time for millions of parents to take a closerlook at their children... and take action.