The Impact of Smart Phones on People’s Lives

The 21st century, it is inevitable that smartphones have taken over people’s life. In the early 2000s, smartphones basically came out with the hope to make phones much more convenient and user-friendly for the people. A handy phone which could fit inside a pocket was all that was required back then. However, with the innovation of newer and better technologies, and also, the competitive nature of the market, smartphones really started taking over most of the work for humans. Letters were taken over by emails. Messages being sent with IMs or BBMs or WhatsApp and its other likes. Phone calls could be turned into video calls with a click of a button. Creation of official documents was now made easy through MS-Office’s different and unique features from MS-Word to Excel to PowerPoint and so on. Even things like gaming were designed in such a way that most kids were glued to their phones all day. It was very much evident that smartphones were really ‘smart’ and people undoubtedly were attracted to it phenomenally.

But soon, with internet connectivity shifting from 2G to 3G to 4G and availability of more and more applications led to a greater tendency of people using the internet day in and day out. In today’s world, it is very hard to even imagine phones without internet. At first, a phone which had an internet connection was viewed as a fancy phone and its affordability was highly questionable. But now with so many ranges of options available to choose from almost all types of the phone have internet in them. Also, the phone network companies have been very generously giving offers and discounts on the internet packs which makes it an even bigger practice.

How have Smartphones replaced daily life activities?

· Playgrounds have been replaced by fun and time-consuming games in mobile phones. Children these days can be seen spending hours on their parents’ smartphones which leaves them with no desire to visit the playgrounds

· Kindle has replaced the hard copy of books. The smell of new books or old books in the bookshelves previously used to be like an addiction for bookworms. But these days with the availability of applications like Amazon Kindle, etc. books and even so far as newspapers have turned to e-books and e-news

· Smartphones can now even help people learn new musical instruments. So instead of strutting onto a real guitar people are busy learning in the virtual world.

· Not to mention, how MS-Office and Notebook Apps like EverNote, etc. have taken over hand-written notes and letters which had their own essence and beauty.

· Online sessions and video calls through Skype, Messenger, etc. have led to a loss in face-to-face communication between people over a cup of tea or coffee.

· Digital marketing i.e. advertisement and promotions through social media has taken over the real face of marketing where advertisements only popped up on our televisions.

· Applications like Uber have brought transport to our doorsteps.

· Swiggy, UberEats, Zomato and other such food apps have substituted the idea of going to a restaurant for fine-dining or sit at a café and have a good time.

People these days even tend to take their phones to the washroom. Not once can we even think of letting our phones go, let alone having phones without internet connectivity?

Comparing the Pros & Cons of using smartphones

In a survey, it has been seen that 80% of the world’s population use Smartphones. Out of them, 65% use their Smartphones to read news feeds, post status updates, read & reply to messages and post photos. (Source: www.keyideasinfotech.com)

Owing to such shocking yet expected statistics, one can surely say how broadly smartphones have had an impact on people’s daily lives. However, we cannot completely scratch out the utilities of a smartphone as well. Therefore, here we make a side-by-side comparison between the good and bad effects of Smartphones on the society:

Convenient or Inconvenient — Smartphones are often claimed to be very convenient, especially in modern times due to its easy access to any kind of product through online orders and various applications be it for food, transportation, clothing, groceries, electronic devices, accessories and so on so forth. However, due to this extreme easy access, it has an alternative impact by making people more lazy and sluggish and getting very little mobility.

Time-Consumer or Time-Saver — It is seen that most of us will go into a panic-mode if they are asked to stay even a day with phones without internet. The only reason this happens is that most of our time is spent on our phones whether it is for important communication or just to pass our time. Though smartphones tend to make a lot of our work easier and faster, therefore, saving loads of time but then again, being glued to your phones all the time can also be boring.

Healthy or Unhealthy — Several digital apps such as diet control, exercise apps, trackers and blood pressure measuring apps are available today making phones equivalent to Fitbits and helping to keep yourselves fit. However, phones also release certain harmful radiations which can have a negative impact on your health.

Helps to focus or affects concentration — Although smartphones can give you access to a lot of helpful videos such a meditation, yoga, etc. to help you build on your focus. But sometimes over-using them can cause a loss of concentration and affect your work and life indirectly.

Educational or Harmful — Internet activities and their influence have a bad reputation. Although sometimes spending quality time on researching for your education or career-related opportunities on smartphones can be much more productive. However, in certain scenarios, people, especially young ones tend to get diverted into negative forms of the internet as well as smartphones which can be very harmful.

Communicative or Disconnecting — Smartphones have been so impactful that one can now even reach to people living in inaccessible areas. This has brought many friends, families and loved ones especially closer. But one has to know that at times spending too much time working or playing games on your smartphones can be the biggest concern and cause for the creation of distances between you and your closed ones.

From the above article, we get a brief idea about smartphones effect on people’s lives. One should always know that “too much of anything” is never a good thing. That is why although smartphones have come into our lives as a certain kind of stress-reliever helping us relax at times and also, helps to find out about various new and important information, but one should always keep in mind that a balance should always be maintained between the time spent in using our phones and experiencing the real life.

No matter how ‘smart’ mobile or any other electronic devices can get, we should always remember that we are the real intelligence while they will forever remain artificial.