Story highlights Kara Alaimo: The iPhone is a revolutionary product that's changed our lives, in many ways for the worse

She identifies seven downsides to the smartphone, including our detachment from lived reality and relationships

Kara Alaimo, an assistant professor of public relations at Hofstra University, is the author of "Pitch, Tweet, or Engage on the Street: How to Practice Global Public Relations and Strategic Communication." She was spokeswoman for international affairs in the Treasury Department during the Obama administration. Follow her on Twitter @karaalaimo. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) This week marks the tenth anniversary of the iPhone. For hundreds of millions of us, this device -- just 4 ounces when introduced -- has come to dominate our lives. Now we can find seemingly any answer to anything with a few taps of the thumb and forefinger. Everything from dinner to a date is now just a click away, and you can procure both of those while simultaneously talking on a conference call -- and riding the train, of course.

Kara S. Alaimo

But as with every revolution, something or somebody loses. Yes, there is darker side to how the iPhone -- and its smartphone copycats -- have changed us.

In fact, here are seven ways they're making our lives less great:

1. They're bad for our brains. IPhones allow us to do many things at once. But studies IPhones allow us to do many things at once. But studies show that media multitaskers—that is, for example, those of us who are simultaneously listening to music, playing TypeShift -- think more slowly and have worse long-term memory, because they find it harder to filter out irrelevant information. Focusing on many things on our phones at once actually diminishes our cognitive abilities.

2. While we're busy on our phones, we're ignoring the world around us. While singles are busy swiping on Tinder, they're missing out on the people sitting next to them on the subway. And as MIT professor Sherry Turkle notes in her book "Alone Together," because we're so conditioned to check our phones all the time, many people can no longer appreciate a lake, beach or hike. "Stillness makes them anxious," she writes.

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