Does Smartphone Affect Human’s Life in Positive Or Negative?

Author: Yuan-Jau Huang

In the present day, smartphone already becomes the one thing that people cannot bring without it. Smartphone is the item that people would bring with them every day, everywhere and anytime. it became part of our life. it is the truth that smartphone can do lots of things for us, such as contact people, searching information on the internet, shopping online, play the game, watching the news or TV shows, take pictures, social media, map, and various features of different apps and so on. Everything always has both good and bad sides. these are all about the benefit of the smartphone, so what about the harm of smartphone? in this paper, we are going to discuss the influence of smartphone in people’s life.

Before we start, we need to know what is the smartphone? what is the difference between the smartphone and old cell phone? Compare with the old cell phone, a smartphone has the complete operating system like the android system and its system, which both are the open system and can include different types of apps and let people download it free or with paying. this is why make the smartphone so special cause everyone can make the app by themselves and upload it to let others download it and is the reason why it is so diverse because it is the ideas come from everyone, every company.

Thus, because of the diversity of different type of apps, and the strong features of the smartphone itself such as the 4G internet, clear picture of the camera, GPS map everywhere and so on. these reasons make the smartphone become so special and important in people’s life. since the smartphone is too convenient, lots of people use it all the time and can’t stop using it. smartphone already become the indispensable in people’s lives in the present day. so actually, how do people view about the smartphone?

Some people say because of the development of technology, human life has become better and more convenient. for example, people can use the smartphone to open the air conditioner or light in their home even they are far away from home. but some of the others say, because of the development of technology, the relationship between people is decreasing. for example, in the family meeting, even everyone stays together in the room, they do not talk to each other but use the smartphone to message others to communicate. So, compare to these two examples, we do know that there is both good and bad side for the smartphone. I believe most people know the benefit of the smartphone since we all do have one, but what about the harm from the smartphone? We are going to focus on the negative side of the smartphone in the literature review part and discuss them both in the discussion part.

Since the smartphone comes out, people start to switch their old cell phone to the new smartphone. why is that? Because of the convenience of the smartphone. in fact, in the present day, the smartphone is not only just the phone anymore but have more functions to let people to uses it, go internet, take the pictures, map, game, calculate, TV, and so on. it combined the function from a computer, calculator, camera, paper map movie or TV shows, Nintendo and so on. I believe more and more functions would be added to the smartphone in the future. so here comes the question” Is there only the benefit of the smartphone, what is the harm from the smartphone?”

As the person who used the smartphone all the time, I am really curious what would be the harm from the smartphone. since people keep using it every day, everywhere in anytime, we could say that smartphone is the thing which accompanies with people the longest time. so how could we ignore the harm from the smartphone? even before the company hired the person, they will do some background research, people should also know both the good and bad sides of the smartphone.

In the present day, almost every person has the smartphone even for the children in the elementary school may have one. It is hard for people to live without the smartphone, it already becomes part of our life. At the same time of convenient life that smartphone brings to us, it is the harm that affects our lives. For example, “Some research has found that smartphone use may contribute to sleep issues and depression.” (Lusinski, 2018) Because of the blue light, it would stimulate our eyes and the pineal gland will stop releasing melatonin which may make us keep waking and hard to go to sleep.

Another example would be “Smartphones could also be damaging people’s romantic relationships.” (Lusinski, 2018) Well, it would not only just the problem for the couple, but also could be the problem between friends, parents, and children. If the intimate person of you realize that you rather than spend more time on your phone than spend more time with him/her, it would damage the relationship between you guys.

What the people today did not realize is when we enjoy the convenience that smartphone brings to us, we also have to face the problems it brings to us. Sleep issue, depression, broke the relationship, conflict communication, live in the virtual world, the difficulty of learning, social skills and so on. Some people are even worse that may have the smartphone addition, which they cannot leave their phone. If they lose their phone, they would get nervous, angry and become emotional. People should always remember that everything has both good and bad side. “There are ways your smartphone is making your life worse.” (Lusinski, 2018) Therefore, people should not ignore the damage that smartphone bring to us and have to face this situation.

So now we all know that smartphone not only gives us the convenience life but also give our life for some bad influence. People should not just enjoy the convenience that the smartphone gives us, we should always keep our mind that smartphone can also bring us the damage too. But instead of just some description form the word, I believe the data would be more convincing for the people to notice this situation. Therefore, I did some survey questions to 20 of my friends, let them help me to check if my hypothesis “There is no absolute benefit or harm from the smartphone, it is just depending on how people view for it.” is right or wrong.

We also would combine what other writer’s opinion and their science data then come out the result at the end. Through this process, we may know what is the opinion that people view for the smartphones. I always believe we cannot judge the thing that it only good or only bad, it depends what sides we are looking for; and this thought should still be approved in the case of the smartphone.

As our topic” does smartphone affect human’s life in positive or negative”, we mentioned it before that smartphone can bring both good and bad sides to human’s life. But how is it going to influence our real life? In the next following paragraphs, we would discuss both the positive and negative side that smartphone bring to humans life, and we would discuss the data from 20 of my friends through those 10 questions to prove if my hypothesis “There is no absolute benefit or harm from smartphone, it is just depending on how people view for it.” is right or wrong.

Thus, what is positive for the smartphone that brings to human’s life? “With the rise of the iPhone and smartphone technology, we now have access to more knowledge and information at our fingertips than anyone in the history of the world.” (Thacker, n.d.) It is the truth that we can get more knowledge and information from just a few clicks on the smartphone; smartphone did change the way of learning and reading system in human’s life.

Another example of the benefit from a smartphone would not only save time but also save the money for us. “Smartphone owners have especially positive attitudes towards their phones’ time-saving capabilities. Some 44% of smartphone owners say that their phone saves them time because they can access the information they need at all times—double the 20% of non-smartphone owners who say the same.” (Smith, 2012) If we have to schedule an appointment, contact friends or family, shopping, call a taxi, looking for the map, check the weather, or set an alarm, we can do all of these through our smartphone. Which would let us save more time and money for buying all other material.

What about the negative for the smartphone that brings to human’s life? We all know that drug can make the addiction, but in fact, the smartphone can also be the addiction, too. “Smartphones help their users escape from reality, much like a drug. Addictive in nature, they open the window to simple, colorful and easy to manipulate the digital world. Thus, addiction to smartphones can separate us from our friends and family. Smartphone addiction can be understood as a dependence syndrome.” (Milian, n.d.) For some people, the reality is too many pressure for them, so they just want to escape from it; therefore, the virtual reality would be a good choice, and through the smartphone, people can easily to do it.

Another example would be the damage of the body and brain. We know that the smartphone will emit electromagnetic waves to influence our body, in the long term, it will make us hard to go sleep and some other diseases. Also, watch the smartphone all the time will reduce your vision. Smartphone would also make you become lazy. “Some experts warn that this over-reliance on your mobile device for all the answers might lead to mental laziness. In fact, one recent study has found that there is actually a link between relying on a smartphone and mental laziness.” (Cherry, 2018) It is true that when the smartphone can help you fix most of the things in your life, people would become lazy since we think the smartphone would enough to take care of it. But in the meantime, it will make you stop thinking and let you become lazier.

After looking so may research from others, now we can go for the survey that I did for my friend. In this survey, I asked them 10 questions about their opinions for the smartphone. Include 1. How many hours do you use the smartphone a day? 2. Does smartphone make your life more convenience? 3. Do you think the smartphone will damage our body? 4. If you know the smartphone could damage our body, will you keep using a smartphone? 5. Compare the previous day, do you think the smartphone change your lifestyle? 6. do you think to spend too much time on the smartphone will make you do not know how to social anymore? 7. If we back to use the old cell phone, which does not have lots of functions like the smartphone now, will you keep spending lots of time on it? 8. Will you feel uncomfortable without your smartphone? 9. How do view for the smartphone? benefit more than harm more for the human? 10. Do you agree or disagree that to judge the good or bad influence on the smartphone is depends on how people view for it? Here is the result of their answer.

For the first question, most of them spend more than five hours on the smartphone daily, some of them even use more than 10 hours. In the second question, everyone agrees that smartphone makes their life more convenience. For the third question, about 90% agree that smartphone could damage human’s body. Question 4, everyone agreed that even though the smartphone can have damage for our body, but they would keep using it. In the present day, it is kind of hard for people if you do not the smartphone, otherwise, how does other contact you? Unless you decide not to be contacted by anyone. Question 5, everyone agrees that smartphone totally changed their lifestyle.

In question 6, 80% disagree that the smartphone will make them do not know how to socialize, but still have some people agree with this point. Question 7, everyone said if the cell phone is not as convenient as now, they would not spend too many time on it, because the previous cell phone can only be used for calling and texting, which compares with now is too poor. For question 8, 30% of them said they would feel uncomfortable without their smartphone, and need to find it out right away, otherwise, they will not go out or do anything else; others feel fine if the smartphone is not with them. Question 9 is the most controversial one, 60% agree that the benefit from the smartphone is more than harm more for human, but other 40% disagree that. Even they agree that smartphone did make their lifestyle changed and become more convenience, but there are still lots of things better than the smartphone, such as the relationship with friend or family, a business, traveling and so on. Smartphone is not the only choices, but it is true that smartphone causes their time too much. In the end, for question 10, everyone agreed that to judge the good or bad influence for the smartphone is depends on how people view it. It is interesting when you do the survey to others especially when those questions are created by you. Although there is only 20 people did the survey, which may not represent the idea from all humans, but at least, through this survey, we can understand how does the people’s opinion for the smartphone, especially for the young generation group. Therefore, in my opinion, I believe the result of my survey did make my hypothesis valid in this smartphone case.

In conclusion, as we did many researchers from other paragraphs and the surveys from myself, we can say that the creation of a smartphone really did change the lifestyle of the human. We can not only contact friends or family by smartphone but also can do more things such as learning the online lesson, read the eBook, play games, looking for map and weather, set the alarm, listen to music, take the picture or video, and more and more different types of apps that you can choose to use. Smartphone is the result of technology development, and technology is always come from what people want and need. Thus, everything we used now is made by the human, it is no good or bad for the item itself, the only difference is how we view for it. Smartphone could be good that give human convenience life and more knowledge and information; on the other hand, it could be the culprit which broke the relationship with friend or family or even have damage for our body. But I believe, if the human can control themselves for the smartphone and not controlled by it, it would be the perfect method for us. The key point is how do we balance between the smartphone and life, once we figure out the way, the smart phone’s problem would not be a problem anymore.

Reference

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Lusinski, N. (2018). 12 ways your smartphone is making your life worse. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/12-ways-your-smartphone-is-making-your-life-worse-2018-6 [Accessed 10 Oct. 2018].

Milian, C. (2018). How Smartphone changed our life. [online] Mental Health Zen. Available at: http://mentalhealthzen.com/how-smartphones-changed-our-lives/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2018].

Purewal, S. (2018). 9 ways smartphones are making our lives better. [online] Greenbot. Available at: https://www.greenbot.com/article/2908013/9-ways-smartphones-are-making-our-lives-better.html [Accessed 4 Oct. 2018].

Smith, A. (2018). Part III: The Impact of Mobile Phones on People’s Lives | Pew Research Center. [online] Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/30/part-iii-the-impact-of-mobile-phones-on-peoples-lives/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Thacker, J. (2018). 10 Influential Ways Smartphones Have Changed Our Lives. [online] Available at: https://www.christianheadlines.com/slideshows/0-influential-ways-smartphones-have-changed-our-interactions.html [Accessed 7 Oct. 2018].