Essay Sample on Cell Phones & Smartphones: Revolutionizing Human Interaction & Life

Introduction

Cell phones and Smartphones, being one of the latest inventions of human beings, have dramatically revolutionized how human beings interact, communicate, and live. With more than 7 billion cell phone users and millions of apps to install, they have become part of daily life and changed how people think, behave, and work. Smartphones are handheld devices that put together enhanced computer technologies, including video, information processing, internet connectivity, and more. The continually rising number of cell phone and internet users in the world has spurred questions on their effect on human health. This paper details how an increasing usage of cell phones and the internet is hurting American citizens.

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Phones have currently a must-have for most citizens. The devices help people to learn, play, have fun, communicate, and also entertain. Statistics suggest that a person spends averagely 3 hours a day on their phone. In every way, phones have made peoples' lives easier. A person can get google map guidance to their destination, book an important appointment online, have a video-conference meeting or interview, and communicate with literally anyone anywhere on earth through a smartphone. They have also enhanced security since GSM data can be used to track down criminals (Pasternack, 2009). Smartphone-compatible telehealth technologies have also improved patient convenience, saved costs for health providers, and improved patient outcomes in the health industry.

Similarly, mobile money, e-payment, and eCommerce platforms have made shopping hassle-free, straightforward, and convenient. They have plaid a significant role in poverty and hunger elimination by availing technologies, education, and information freely or cheaply. It leads to an increase in incomes, developing counties' GDPs, women's safety and empowerment, and access to better opportunities (Blair, 2019). But, with at the charms, fund, and convenience that come with phones, unseen dangers ponder below the surface. Phones affect human joints, attention (causing distraction), and social interactions.

Figure 1: Phone usage statistics. Source: https://bit.ly/3488ZEB

One concern about phones and internet use is that they are addictive and filled with a false feeling of awe and pleasure. People who over-rely on their phones have been shown to lower conversation quality, reduce critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. Nomophobia is the new term used to describe the fear of not being able to use a phone. Smartphone addiction is harmful to the mind. People find discomfort and may suffer anxiety from being unable to access the phone or use the internet (Rahaman, 2017). This condition weakens connections between families and can also reduce a person's concentration at work.

Smartphones and internet addiction have hijacked many people's minds. Just like Justin Rosenstein, who developed the Facebook like button, many people have been so fond of the internet that they now deliberately attempt to disentangle from it. Justin blocked his phone form, allowing any app downloads and banned himself from Snapchat and Reddit. People have an ingrown impulse to check notifications, to visit YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or Snapchat to see what is going on, and this affects their attention and focus on other vital issues (Pasternack, 2009). These pulls result from designers' persuasive design tricks in building impulsive apps that technologically manipulate users and get them addicted. But the challenge remains that technology is ubiquitous, and many people are not aware of the designer's intentions.

The distractive power of phones has cost many lives of drivers, pedestrians, and passengers on the roads. The National Safety Council (NHC) reports that 27% of road accidents resulted from phone use while on the road. The accidents claim lives and hurt the livelihoods of people and also cost taxpayers money in road maintenance and processing of cases. The NTHSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) reported in 2014 that traffic accidents cost the country roughly 280Bilion dollars a year. Making calls or texting while operating a vehicle reduces the diver's concentration and performance significantly. He can thus easily hit a pedestrian, another motorist, or drive into a ditch. Pedestrians who use phones while using the road also pose an equal threat to their lives and others'.

The 2014 report also explained that handling the phone and the conversation both hamper the driver's efficiency. Dialogue consumes a person's time and attention and impedes his ability to recognize road signs or respond to pedestrian movements and sudden action from the driver in front. The NTHSA thus hinted that driving while using a phone lowers a driver's performance just as much as driving while drunk. It singled out teenagers as the most affected because of their over-reliance on texting while driving and their inexperience. Business professionals are also at risk because of their need to continuously connect with clients, partners, and employees, even when on the road.

The growth of social media use and how it changes people's thinking has been implicated in the two major political earthquakes recently; Brexit and Donald Trump's presidency. Social media has overhauled the political system and is hampering the efficacy of democracy. Fake news, fact-checks, aspirants' histories, and other factors are just a click away from a voter. This information can completely alter how a voter feels about the candidate (Blair, 2019). Brexit campaign, for example, used a massive social media presence and simple messaging to spread negative feedback about pro-Europeans. Eurosceptics expressed that leaving the EU would save money for the country, empower NHS, and boost British democracy as the Remainers insisted that Brexit would weaken everything about Britain.

The online war raged for long, with both sides earning and losing supporters by day. Added to the altered way of communication between journalists, citizens, politicians, and enthusiasts, social media is a major conduit of information and misinformation of political choices. It has allowed politicians to eliminate some middlemen and reach their voters directly. Today, 80 percent of British MPs have social media accounts. By using simple, emotional, and compelling vibes, the Brexit party targeted older residents of England rather than the youth. They understood the audience well and threw manipulative pitches like "save democracy, vote Brexit," which augured well with the audience.

Since launching his campaign in 2015, Donald Trump has used social media hyper-actively, tactfully, consistently, and viciously to assert influence, intimidate opponents, and thwart competitors. He posts several times a day, and his staunch followers like, share, and interact on comments. This fashion keeps his ideas trending to reinforce further and make his ideologies known. The interactions between his supporters and haters in the comments also allow his supporters to try to convert a few.

The online political waves that lead to Brexit and Trump's presidency rode on the increasing usage of smart devices and social media. The net result of these mechanisms is that candidates who are most active online will get followers, and they will be known faster, which may lead to sympathy or unreal connections between his voters and his agenda, which can be bad for democracy.

Anamitra Deb et al. built a report to synthesize the effects of social media on democracy. They explain that social media like Facebook are programmed to spread news like wildfire, and eked out with populist politicians and partisan media outlets; the result is polarization, biased opinions, and hate. Explosive ideas get magnified and earn dignity and false authenticity (Deb, Donohue & Glaisyer, 2017). This pattern subconsciously lures voters into thinking in a certain way about someone or something.

Smartphones emit electromagnetic waves, which also pose some adverse effects on human health. In the lab, radiation from cell phones promoted tumor in rats, but no such link has been witnessed in humans, Th impacts of cell phone radiation on human cancer rates is still under study globally. To date, there have not been any conclusive reports that connect cell phones to cancer. The National Toxicology Program also hinted that cell phone radiofrequency were possible carcinogens. The absence of concrete proof, though, that phones can cause cancer should not be regarded as proof that it cannot happen (Pasternack, 2009). The doubt cast on these results is attributed to suspected biases given researchers'' funding and author affiliations.

One direct challenge with smartphones is that because they are built to be used at close range, they have the potential to bring eye complications. But users can minimize this effect by reducing the backlight, cleaning the screen, dimming surrounding light, and taking intervals breaks from using the devices.

In these digital times, users are becoming more worried about how technology companies manage their data. In 2018, Facebook suffered a major data scandal, when the government realized that they allowed and got defeated to prevent Cambridge Analytica from using an app called "This Is Your Digital Life" to access millions of users' information from Facebook's platform without the consent of the users. The information included people's age, birthdays, list of friends, location data, and cities and birth, and residence. Cambridge Analytica commercialized this data and used it in political campaigns to determine which forms of adverts would be the most persuasive and in choosing the best locations for political rallies.

As a result of this breach, Facebook got fined approximately 5 Billion USD. The use of social media data and patterns for voter and customer manipulation pushes American citizens into making unintended impulsive political and purchase decisions. Further, social media disrupts the tranquility in the public square. The systems are embedded with features like the share button, like and dislike buttons that inadvertently enhance hate speech, sexual and racial harassment, and terrorism promotion that can lead to unnecessary anger.

Because cell phones are not ergonomically empowered like laptops and computers, their Prolonged also affects people's back and necks. Pew Research Centre published a study in 2013 to prove this link. After using the phone for long durations, the user may feel hand tremor, light headache, and discomfort on the fingers. Back pain and neck pain result from lots of tension on perimetric tissue, muscles, and tendons from prolonged phone usage. The research proved a connection between right shoulder pain and mobile phone usage time, and also between internet usage time and pain in the right thumb (Rahaman, 2017). They also hinted that long cell phone usage hours could lead to musculoskeletal disorders.

The increasing use of social media has been accused of promoting youth recruitment into extremist groups like Al Qaeda. To assert more influence, terrorists commit performance crimes, where they post videos of them doing evil on online sites to sell more fear. In the guise of enticing job offers, amazing "successful dates," or even coincidental connections, youth have found themselves persuaded into joining terrorist groups and cults, and some women have been sexually assaulted. Social media has also been used to commit and organize crime in some cases. Gangs online recruit members, intimidate rival gangs and coordinate their criminal activities (Allcott et al., 2019).

Burglars collect information about their victims from Twitter, Facebook, and Google to know the property...