ARE SMARTPHONES ALIENATING US FROM US?
When did phones first become "smart"? One would say since RIM introduced BlackBerrys! Those were just enhanced phones, capable of handling mail and instant messaging (which is not very smart). But come 2007, a company which then, had just claimed the crown for music players in the market, introduced a truly unthinkable experience in the name of a 'Phone'! Ever since, there has been an extensive and exponential growth in the smartphone market. With smartphone shipments touching 472 million units worldwide (statistics via Gartner) in 2011, one should stand, stop and pause to think, and analyze how the smartphones have changed our ways.
An instrument which brings seamless usage of maps, social networking, news, games, etc is causing us to get distracted from the world, it gets tougher to lift those heads out of their 4-inch shiny screens. For example before any of us had a maps app, we would ask around and get to a place we didn't know, but now, thanks to largely google's and various others map apps, that form of interaction has been completely lost, also there are researchers telling us that we may impair our sense of recognition and memorization of various places and cities because of these apps.
Another interesting fact, for some reason, smartphone users are becoming more skittish about having personal conversations in public, it is a widely known fact, that people now talk about more sensitive topics (whether relating to themselves or otherwise) over SMS or IM services. Why? What happened to those times where we spoke to each other about our problems face-to-face?
We have reduced our entertainment needs to gaming and watching movies on small 4-inch glossy screens, what happened to the good old ways, "Hey! You want to go for the new Spiderman movie"? The extensive usage of instant messaging has put literature greats to shame, we shorten our sentences (so that we do not have to type for long) which often leaves the reader confused (unless he or she is familiar with your style of saying things in short).
Another very disturbing and very noticeable thing, the children today instead of arguing about sports, classwork, knowledge about their surrounding world in general, quarrel over which smartphone is the best. Its one thing to debate over a topic temporarily and another to come back everyday and talk about the same thing, its a sign of obsession.
Along with smartphones came along a new era in information security, while this feature put paranoid corporate heads to ease, it raised paranoia in the general public, for example, if a friend of mine whilst using my phone notices I have a lock code, it unnecessarily raises brows, this is still mild, but when a couple in a relationship for example notices this, he or she gets freaked out with questions like "why is he or she hiding stuff from me?" "Is he or she cheating on me?" running through his or her mind, its very unsettling! With improved security, there is newer version of doubt created in the minds.
Then there is social networking, before the smartphone era, people used to first share news (good or bad) with the people they regularly meet, then with people who were a little far away over the phone and then the news spread slowly to farther places, but today? Even the tiniest bit of news about our personal lives first finds a spot on the "walls" or "timelines" of various online social sites as "status updates", have we lost the essence of actual physical communication?
All I want to say in this post is that, yes smartphones have indeed made an impact on our lives, rather quite a positive one I would say, but as it has been said before I will like to reassert the fact that 'too much of anything is not good' (very cliched I know, but its true). With this is sleepless obsession over smartphones, we are descending into anarchy and a state of the world being filled with tiny, shiny screens. Eventually this madness will subside, but the question is what lasting impact and damage will it do to our social lives before it mellows down? Only time will tell! Of course on the other hand smartphone manufacturers will not want such stories to catch steam as there is a whole $300-$500 billion market for them, out there! Like statutory warnings on cigarette packs ("Smoking kills") a mild warning should be printed on those smartphone boxes as well, 'Use responsibly!'.
When did phones first become "smart"? One would say since RIM introduced BlackBerrys! Those were just enhanced phones, capable of handling mail and instant messaging (which is not very smart). But come 2007, a company which then, had just claimed the crown for music players in the market, introduced a truly unthinkable experience in the name of a 'Phone'! Ever since, there has been an extensive and exponential growth in the smartphone market. With smartphone shipments touching 472 million units worldwide (statistics via Gartner) in 2011, one should stand, stop and pause to think, and analyze how the smartphones have changed our ways.
An instrument which brings seamless usage of maps, social networking, news, games, etc is causing us to get distracted from the world, it gets tougher to lift those heads out of their 4-inch shiny screens. For example before any of us had a maps app, we would ask around and get to a place we didn't know, but now, thanks to largely google's and various others map apps, that form of interaction has been completely lost, also there are researchers telling us that we may impair our sense of recognition and memorization of various places and cities because of these apps.
Another interesting fact, for some reason, smartphone users are becoming more skittish about having personal conversations in public, it is a widely known fact, that people now talk about more sensitive topics (whether relating to themselves or otherwise) over SMS or IM services. Why? What happened to those times where we spoke to each other about our problems face-to-face?
We have reduced our entertainment needs to gaming and watching movies on small 4-inch glossy screens, what happened to the good old ways, "Hey! You want to go for the new Spiderman movie"? The extensive usage of instant messaging has put literature greats to shame, we shorten our sentences (so that we do not have to type for long) which often leaves the reader confused (unless he or she is familiar with your style of saying things in short).
Another very disturbing and very noticeable thing, the children today instead of arguing about sports, classwork, knowledge about their surrounding world in general, quarrel over which smartphone is the best. Its one thing to debate over a topic temporarily and another to come back everyday and talk about the same thing, its a sign of obsession.
Along with smartphones came along a new era in information security, while this feature put paranoid corporate heads to ease, it raised paranoia in the general public, for example, if a friend of mine whilst using my phone notices I have a lock code, it unnecessarily raises brows, this is still mild, but when a couple in a relationship for example notices this, he or she gets freaked out with questions like "why is he or she hiding stuff from me?" "Is he or she cheating on me?" running through his or her mind, its very unsettling! With improved security, there is newer version of doubt created in the minds.
Then there is social networking, before the smartphone era, people used to first share news (good or bad) with the people they regularly meet, then with people who were a little far away over the phone and then the news spread slowly to farther places, but today? Even the tiniest bit of news about our personal lives first finds a spot on the "walls" or "timelines" of various online social sites as "status updates", have we lost the essence of actual physical communication?
All I want to say in this post is that, yes smartphones have indeed made an impact on our lives, rather quite a positive one I would say, but as it has been said before I will like to reassert the fact that 'too much of anything is not good' (very cliched I know, but its true). With this is sleepless obsession over smartphones, we are descending into anarchy and a state of the world being filled with tiny, shiny screens. Eventually this madness will subside, but the question is what lasting impact and damage will it do to our social lives before it mellows down? Only time will tell! Of course on the other hand smartphone manufacturers will not want such stories to catch steam as there is a whole $300-$500 billion market for them, out there! Like statutory warnings on cigarette packs ("Smoking kills") a mild warning should be printed on those smartphone boxes as well, 'Use responsibly!'.
