The Importance of Smartphones in the Lives of Americans
Smartphones has become an every day norm for most Americans. Smartphones are relatively new, being introduced in the past decade. Smartphones are a great way to stay in contact with the rest of the world while being mobile. They can make phone calls, send text messages, browse the web, store various types of media, take pictures, and play games.
Smartphones have also become increasingly popular among the nations youth. As of 2013, 47% of teens own a smartphone ("Teens and Tech"). Smartphones were created for mobile access to the web and for contact purposes. They are supposed to help us to gain knowledge. However, many argue that smartphones are doing the exact opposite. Smartphones and technology are actually really helpful tools if they are used right.
Contrary to popular belief, smartphones have actually been around since the late 1990's ("How the Cell"). However, smartphones were usually very expensive and were generally only used by people in business. This all changed in 2007, however, whenever Apple introduced the iPhone("How the Cell"). The iPhone certainly was not the first smartphone and it was not the first phone to use touch-screen capabilities. However, the iPhone was the first smartphone that became a consumer hit. Since then, several other companies have designed their own operating systems. The most popular rival to the iPhone is the Android, which is marketed by Google ("How the Cell".)
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Today, eight years after the iPhone's release, it seems as if everyone owns a smartphone. Information is easily accessible. Information can be obtained within seconds from Google or another search engine. However, researchers have said that instead of smartphones helping us, they are actually harming us. Researcher's claim that Googling everything is making us "lazy thinkers" and that smartphone users can not remember as much as non-smartphone users (Poladian).
The University of Waterloo has conducted three studies involving 660 participants (Poladian). The studies shown that more analytical thinkers with "stronger cognitive skills" used search engines less often (Poladian). Gordon Pennycook, Ph.D. candidate for the University of Waterloo stated that "Our research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence. Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research."
Many have also argued that smartphones are making their users less social and ruder than they were before. Many people will often stare at their cellphones now instead of talking to others around them. There is even a word for this act and it is called "phubbing" which is the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention to what is going on (Matteson). Cellphones have become a "crutch" for people in many social situations. If they feel the need to not talk to anybody, they just stare at their phone.
However, smartphone users may be staring at their phones a little bit too much and they may not even realize it until they leave their phone at home or their battery dies. Smartphones enable us to be in contact with people that are not present, but we often lose touch with the people right in front of us.
Some restaurants have even banned phone usage during dining. A Los Angeles restaurant that goes by the name of "Bucato" has banned cell phone usage. Cell phones are only allowed outside in their designated cell phone areas and photography is “politely discouraged” (Forbes). R.J. Cooper who owns Gyspy Soul, a restaurant in Virginia stated, "Cellphones at the table are one of the worst dining trends ever" because it distracts the customers and workers alike (Schneier).
Brendan McGill, a chef at Hitchcock in Seattle, claims that phones slow down service within the restaurant. Customers are taking more time to look at their smartphones instead of their menus, thus slowing down the entire pace of the restaurant. Customers are also taking time out to take photos of their food to post on social media, taking anywhere from two to five minutes extra.
Some have claimed that smartphones are making their users dumber because there is no need to memorize anything anymore. With a smartphone, all of the information in the world is accessible with a few taps of the screen. People do not even need to memorize phone numbers anymore, since most smartphones store the numbers and just a tap of the screen can dial them. Also, people do not memorize stuff as much as they used to due to search engines. There is no need to memorize mathematical formulas or dates anymore. All of that information can be obtained within a quick Google search. Anytime anything is forgotten, it can be obtained again within a matter of seconds thanks to smartphones.
Researchers have also claimed that smartphones are making their users have shorter attention ps due to constant notifications from their phone and for switching between apps constantly. A new study states that attention ps have dropped from twelve minutes to a staggering five minutes in the past ten years (Vidyarthi). Younger people have shorter attention ps than the elderly as well (Vidyarthi). It has also been argued that smartphone users have became good at multitasking, however, they generally put more effort into their smartphone instead of the other activity that they are doing.
Also, researchers claim that smartphone and social media usage is affecting their users' ability to focus. Some claim that social media makes their users more self-centered. A study conducted in 2009 found that fifty-seven percent of college students felt that their generation users social media to self-promote and to gain attention (Vidyarthi). Forty percent of college students agreed that social media promotion was useful for getting ahead in the world today (Vidyarthi).
Another way that our smartphones could be harming their users is that smartphone users become extremely dependent on their phone. Smartphone addiction is a real thing. It is estimated that the average smartphone user will check their phone up to 150 times per day and that nearly one third of smartphone users admit that they are addicted to their device (Gregorie). Seventy- three percent of smartphone users feel panicked whenever they misplace their phone (Archer).
According to a poll by SecurEnvoy, seventy percent of women have phone separation anxiety as opposed to sixty percent of men. There has been a term coined for this and it is called "nomophobia" which means no-mobile phone-phobia which is "the rust of anxiety or fear when you realize you are disconnected-out of the loop with friends, family, work and the world.” (Archer). Fifty percent of smartphone users have actually admitted that they text while driving even though it is six times more dangerous than drunk driving (Archer). Another shocking statistic, 1 out of 5 people claim that they use their smartphone during sex (Archer).
Excessive smartphone use has also been linked with depression. New Baylor University research claims that people who check their phone often could be trying to improve a negative mood. The researchers asked 346 college students to complete an online survey. The results revealed that those who used their smartphones more often were more prone to moodiness, materialism, and temperamental behavior, and are less able to focus on the task at hand (Gregorie).
Previous research has also revealed that obsessive smartphone use has also been linked with loneliness and shyness, poor sleep, and less engagement in work and school (Gregorie). Researchers found that smartphone use after nine p.m. was associated with decreased sleep quantity at night (“Use at Night"). Users often feel depleted the next morning, thus harming how productive they are. Researcher Russell Johnson, an assistant professor of management at Michigan State University, states, "Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep. They keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep."
Many argue, however, that smartphones are not harmful. Even though research states that attention ps have decreased in recent years, there is not enough proof to deem smartphones and technology as the culprit. Are attention ps really shrinking or do people not want to pay attention anymore unless it's on an electronic device? Electronic devices supply an endless amount of entertainment.
For example, if a YouTube video simply is not entertaining enough, a different app will surely have some entertaining stuff. It is not that smartphone user's attention ps are shrinking, but they often are not interested in the real world anymore. Of course a funny YouTube video is going to be more entertaining than a two-hour lecture on evolution. Of course playing Candy Crush will be more thrilling than watching a documentary on Abraham Lincoln. There is not enough proof that smartphones and other electronic devices are making their user's attention ps go down.
Technology and smartphones have actually made us more social human beings as well. Before the days of the Internet or even the telephone, writing letters and face-to-face communication was the only way to communicate. If a friend was going away to college a hundred miles away, the only way to contact them was through snail mail. The letters would take weeks to get through. Now that text messaging and Facebook is a thing, friends and family members can stay in touch now more than ever, no matter where they are. Technology gives people the opportunity to stay in touch with old friends.
So, in fact, smartphones are actually making us more social as opposed to anti-social. The whole purpose of the smartphone is to stay in touch with the rest of the world and that is exactly what it is doing. Smartphones enable their users to communicate with different people from around the world. Just a few decades ago, this was not possible or achievable unless you could travel. Technology is not tearing us apart as a society; it is actually bringing us together more now than ever before. Even though it may be impossible for face-to-face contact, texting, phone calls, and video calls are still available. Technology has helped people stay together and to not grow apart.
As far as electronic devices and sleep goes, it is true that electronic devices can deter and harm sleeping quality. However, we should not put all of the blame on the smartphone for sleeping issues. TV's, laptops, tablets, gaming consoles, and other electronic devices also deter sleep, not just the smartphone. It is common knowledge that electronics before bedtime is an absolute no, unless you want your sleep to be deterred. Electronics keep their users hyped up and unable to wind down. Even the small task of answering an e-mail can tense up the body, thus making it hard to fall asleep.
The "glow" that electronic devices let off also harms how well their users sleep. The light tricks the brain into thinking that it is daytime instead of night. This in return delays the release of melatonin, which is the sleep-inducing hormone (Hatfield). Smartphones in general are not the cause of lack of sleep. However, they can be a factor in bad sleep quality.
The sole purpose of a smartphone and other technology is to connect us with others. Also, the purpose is to make us smarter. With a smartphone, every amount of information that anyone would ever need is accessible by just doing a simple Google search. There are also several apps out in the market that include vast amounts of information. Smartphones harbor a ton of information. The information can be easily accessed as well. Questions that no one had the answer to can now be answered by the Internet. There is a vast amount of information available now due to the Internet and search engines. Some say that this is actually harming the brain, while others say that it is helping. Both sides are right, however. It can actually be harmful because we are no longer relying on pure brainpower to memorize information. We store everything in our smartphones.
Memorizing telephone numbers, birthdays, and important meetings is a thing of the past. These bits of information can be stored in an electronic device as opposed to being stored in the brain. In contrast, having all of this information at our fingertips is actually quite helpful and useful. Information is easily accessible. Answers to questions we might would have never had are now possible thanks to modern technology.
In conclusion, smartphones are not as harmful as some people may think they are. Yes, they can be distracting and take up a lot of our attention, but they provide us with so much more than what the generation before ours had. Smartphones enable us to stay in touch with friends and family who live far away. They also enable us to have a lot of information at our fingertips. Smartphones have changed modern society for the better.
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The Importance of Smartphones in the Lives of Americans. (2023, Apr 19). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-importance-of-smartphones-in-the-lives-of-americans/
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