The Effects Of Smartphones

The world is continually bombarded with snippets of new technological advancements. These gadgets play an enormous role in the daily lives of many people universally. There is no doubt that society has become engulfed in the phenomenon known as the smartphone. Actions such as surfing the web, texting family and friends, tweeting, posting, sharing, liking, and many more have become a habitual routine for most. The impulse to check for an anticipated incoming message is almost unbearable. In most cases, these advancements are ones that have accumulated over the last several years. Most perfect examples occur in everyday life. For decades, people have attended monotonous lectures and meetings. Just a few years ago one would be forced to sit through …show more content…
Smartphones have almost become a part of humans like an essential organ. The thought might sound absurd without being put into context. How many times does a human blink daily? How many of those blinks are flicked at a screen, more specifically the screen of a smartphone? The realization might startle some. The problem does not lie in the attachment, but rather the effects they have on the lives of all who use them. They have crept their way into many if not most aspects of our lives. For instance, count the number of times someone has walked out the door and rushed back inside to retrieve their phone, usually remarking, “I couldn’t live without it!” Although it is common sense and proven scientifically that humans do not need smartphones to survive, they may be changing the fundamentals of human interaction. In an interview with Sherry Turkle, Bill Moyers states that “our devices change not only what we do, but also who we are.” They believe that technology has advantages, but if it isn’t used carefully it could be more harmful than helpful. For just a few moments take a step out of virtual reality and into life as we know it, or perhaps, how we once knew …show more content…
Hundreds of thousands of texts are sent per second, millions of texts are sent in a minute, several billions of texts are sent in a day, and trillions of texts are sent in a year. How many texts is each person responsible for adding to the statistics? Is it a negative thing? Either way, the amount of connections in the world by text alone is astonishing. The connections made today are not only with other humans, but with man-made technology. All the new gadgets sound good and they have indeed given our society countless advantages, but the power needs to be used carefully. It comes down to the good outweighing the bad. All of the technological progression could lead to the digression of cherished human to human companionship. One of the greatest inventors in history, Albert Einstein, once said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” He made this bold prediction before mobile phones were invented or even thought of. Most people of his time probably scoffed at the idea or even thought of him as crazy. No one, not even Einstein, could have predicted the impact technology has had on present day lives. Sherry Turkle, a MIT technology and society specialist, has studied the digital world for over thirty years and believes that smartphones play such a large role in our lives because of three simple