Illegal Drugs, Alcoholic Drinks and Cell Phones
The similarities and differences
By Tarif Youssef Agha
It is not so difficult, for those who know about the language, to recognize that the similarity between the three words in the title is that all of them are in plural and end with (s). To those who can not see more than that similarity, I like to say that there are much more.
Addiction: In the case of illegal drugs and alcoholic drinks, and cigarettes also, addiction is caused by the need of blood to it. In the case of cell phones, which were invented and developed to make our lives easier, became a ‘bad habit’ that qualified to be called ‘addiction’ where users can’t ‘let go’ and the phone becomes as part of their hands.
The health damage: The damage inflicted to the human body by drugs, alcoholic drinks, and also by cigarettes, is not a secret, and the addicted people know it as every one else. The damage includes the nervous, immune, and respiratory systems, in addition to liver damage in the case of alcoholic drinks. The cell phones also hurt those who are addicted to them by damaging their hearing, vision, the nervous system, the hand and neck joints and other things. Phone addiction also leads to fatigue as a result of spending too much time with no rest.
The social damage: All societies look into those addicted to drugs and alcoholic drinks in a way that is a mix of pity and disgust. No one wants to be their friend or even to come close to them, so they live under the feeling that they are rejected by their environment and that they need medical treatment before they can be accepted again. The people addicted to cell phones also face a similar social problem. Where ever they are, even behind the steering wheels, they are glued to their phones and can not stop using them. So they put themselves in a position of ‘non-existence’ which makes them lose the relations with their society and the real world around them in order to gain relations of the internet imaginary world. This is very dangerous because, as time passes, it will make these people look like robots without any emotions or human feelings.
The economic damage: No doubt that the people addicted to drugs and alcoholic drinks spend a lot of money to buy them and then spend more for treatment and rehab. If those people were rich, it means they would lose money which could go to commercial investments. But if they were not rich, then they would lose any hope in a secured future which may lead them to accept any job or, even, to end behind bars. Those who are addicted to cell phones will reach a point where they can’t leave the phones from their hands, so they can’t keep any job and can’t concentrate on any task, which may lead them to always be in need of others.
Denial: All those who are addicted to drugs and alcoholic drinks, even to cigarettes, deny that they are addicted and that they can quit any time they want. This denial applies also to the people addicted to cell phones; every one of them I asked about his or her addiction denied and laughed at it. From my side, I expect that we soon will see clinics treating this kind of addiction.
Finally, I look into the people addicted to cell phones as people who are kidnapped by these little machines which were invented to make our life easier, but were used by a lot of people in a way that put their lives and futures in danger. Their addiction, as we have just analyzed, is as hazardous as that of the addiction of drugs and alcoholic drinks. This issue reminds me of those movies where people are abducted by devils and made helpless. Therefore, every time I lay my eyes on those cell phones, I say ‘stay away from me, I won’t hurt you, so don’t hurt me’ (proverb).
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(Can be shared without permission)
By Tarif Youssef-Agha
An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet
Monday January 4, 2016, Houston, Texas
http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry