Paper Example on the Mobile Revolution: Disruption of Social Norms and Challenges of Interaction

Introduction

The rapid adoption and diffusion of mobile phones were extensively unanticipated and the older adults are still trying to navigate using them. For an extended period, mobile phones appeared to be the solution to long-distance networking and communication. However, the increasingly mobile lifestyle has disrupted the social norms and caused problems of interaction between different individuals. A smartphone which is an example of a smartphone, is being improved regularly with updates and innovative features and apps such as access to social media, online shopping, biometrics and emails. Users spend more time on social media, playing games, finding answers to questions, academic search, and do business emails. To students, the smartphone serves as a tool for accessing school information through electronic learning and mobile learning. The smartphone however has affected the academic life of the students reducing their concentration during lessons. Overall, smartphones also pose health issues to the user. The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of mobile devices focusing on their advantages and disadvantages.

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Pros

Effect on Relationships

Mobile phones use between people is a means of producing and preserving societal systems. Since it creates a method of connecting with people who are in considerable distance away from each other, it strengthens the bond by continuing the connection between them. The relationship is continuously strengthened without the physical presence of the individuals while excluding others. Mobile phones are the critical personal communication device for most people and hence serves as a tool for strengthening the links between them (Cooper, 2017, p. 14). Innovations such as video call and Wi-Fi connection creates a faster interaction between the peers as it presents the opportunity of people to experience real-life connection even with the distance. The mobile phones provide a virtual environment for people to hang out in which face to face meetings conventionally afforded. It has transcended the distance between two individuals limiting face to face interaction (Ling, 2008). Texting serves as an emotional and affection connection in which they are made of endearments, which seem like love notes and information (Cooper, 2016). Texting serves as a means of releasing daily frustration about friends and work which improves to a certain degree their interaction. Photos also communicate experiences and events between peers, strangers, and romantic partners. The extent an individual's emotions and recollection of captured events (Scifo, 2005, p. 365). Uploaded photos share personal experiences becoming social communication creating a group experience (Cooper, 2017, p. 15).

Effect of Smart Phone on Education

Learning and teaching institutions have adopted and integrated information and communication technology in higher education. It has been incorporated in several educational activities, including retrieving performance information, inspiring discussion and sharing sessions between educators and learners, and accessing contents of the course (Singh & Samah, 2018, p. 84). Smartphone, if used for the right purposes on an educational environment, is likely to enhance the performance of learners through improving the learning and teaching experiences. Students can also interact with teachers online and share any issues affecting them and be able to gain a solution to the problems (Singh & Samah, 2018, p. 84). Smartphones create a possibility for the learners to study anytime and anywhere encouraging the learners to engage in numerous learning activities. Concussively, the success of students using smartphones only applies if any distracting factors are removed allowing them to remain focused on studying.

Effect on Language Learning

Educational research has focused on Computer-assisted learning to study computer-assisted education in which mobile technology is essential for its success. Mobile devices have been fixed with innovative features and applications which promote language learning (Sung, Chang, & Yang, 2015, p. 3). The mobility and portability of cell phones has been used in researching which indicates that these two attributes of phones enable teaching and learning to occur anywhere and stimulate the desire to continue studying at different classroom setting (Sung, Chang, & Yang, 2015, p. 4). In social interaction and connectivity, cell phones enable learners to collaborate, interact and share information effortlessly. These attributes contribute to enhancing the group learning efficiency boosting the quality of interaction during learning. In terms of context-sensitivity, they gather data specific to time, environment and location and connect language learning at various locations, times and settings. In individuality, mobile phones allow for personalization empowering learners to use authentic learning materials (Sung, Chang, & Yang, 2015, p. 4).

Cons

Effect on Academic Life of Students

In terms of cyberslacking, students use mobile technology unwarranted in class for learning purposes. Mobile phones have become ubiquitous in classrooms especially in tertiary institutions. They have become detrimental in reducing achievement, limiting note taking and pulling students off tasks through social media and texting (Masiu & Chukwuere, 2018). The students receive notifications from different sites and texts which distracts them. Texting influences the writing and language standards of young people. Studies on the language pattern is described as "textspeak" which is attributed with distinctive graphology. It is made of rebus abbreviations forming words by representing letters as syllables such as `b4` and logograms including symbols and numeral namely `sum1` to mean someone (Nurullah, 2009, p. 22). It affects the writing of assignments, notes and exams in schools which has caused some educators to consider the adoption of texting as a legitimate way of writing worth studying in school (Donovan, 2006).

Effect of Smart Phones on Health Issues

Studies have identified several common or general smartphone influence on human health if used for excess amounts of time. The health effects include headaches accompanied by irritability due to continuous mobile phones use. It causes anxiety due to constant incoming calls and news, which results in eye strain (Abu-Shanab & Haddad, 2015, p. 53). Continuous listening to each other, texting and calling results to tiredness of the user. The use of mobile phones causes loss of appetite to some users making them excessively occupied. Also, hearing loss from continuous calling, issues with fingers due to use of keypad and other health issues such as addiction, being disposed, lack of sleep, limb pains and neck pains (Abu-Shanab & Haddad, 2015, p. 53). Depression, stress, anxiety and insomnia are related to internet abuse which concerns mobile phone use.

Addiction

Mobile phones pose a dangerous psychological impact due to excess usage for a long time continuously. Excessive use of phones, inability to cut back on phone usage, use of phones to solve boredom, being depressed or anxious when without the phone and losing personal relationships are symptoms of addiction (Shoukat, 2019, p. 47). These behavioral addictions result in a habit that can be summarized in several ways. The user makes longer call compared to an average user, using cell phones to text and call family members even in the same room, and a feeling of depressed and nervous if detached or separated from the mobile phone (Abu-Shanab & Haddad, 2015, p. 53). Addiction creates a sense of dependency and anxiety on the gadget and leads to a higher risk of depression and anxiety. Researchers have identified that increased cell phone usage among teenagers is linked with recessions, suicide risk factors and suicided rates (Shoukat, 2019, p. 48).

Effects on Walking During Negotiating Floor-Based Obstacles

Research done on the increased pedestrian connected incidences when outdoor and using the cell handset has indicated the impact of phone use on public safety (Timmis et al., 2017). Use of mobile phones when waling causes changes in walking gait from altered visual search behavior when using the phone. When pedestrians look at their phones when walking creates difficulty in acquiring simultaneous visual data from the fovea of the environment which should guide locomotion, crucial for safe walking (Timmis et al., 2017). The fovea is fixated to the screen when looking at the phone and walking which affect obtaining a detailed visual evidence. The senses require refixation to acquire a clear image and limited refixation will likely increase the probability of getting involved in an accident. The potential hazard for an accident is attributed to minimal time to initiate or structure an appropriate reply to walk around the risk or step over the hindrance (Timmis et al., 2017).

Effect on Social Norms and Culture

The increased lifestyle of mobile phones has disrupted conventional social norms regarding etiquette (Cooper, 2017, p. 14). The young people have failed to understand protocols such as texting and talking on the phone while at the dinner table is unacceptable. Mobile phone reshapes the social norm of speaking in public places. It has created a new subculture revolutionizing the life of teenagers across cultures with its behavior patterns, values and standards by higher virtualization of social contact and new models of social interaction (Nurullah, 2009, p. 23).

Effect on Cognitive Functioning

Habitual engagement with mobile phones has been directly connected with negative and consistent influence on the ability of the user to regulate emotions, pay attention, remember, and think. Smartphones, advanced cell phones, offer unlimited access to the dynamic collective knowledge database enabling users to search, locate and learn any fact they desire (Wilmer, Sherman, & Chein, 2017, p. 7). Research indicates that modern technology is driving the users to depend on devices to keep information for users. Another study explains that a user's symbiotic relationship with technology causes the users to have a recollection of less actual information (Wilmer, Sherman, & Chein, 2017, p. 7). The outcome of one research indicated that the users who excessively used their phones to search for information scored poorly on cognitive measures tests (Wilmer, Sherman, & Chein, 2017, p. 8). Studies on the relationship between memory and digital photography have indicated the possibility of experience and remember information for a short period. The recent social media trends prioritize ephemeral photo sharing with sites like Instagram and Snapchat allowing the posting of videos and images to be viewed for a limited amount of time which is relatable to the user's memory retention for a short amount of time (Wilmer, Sherman, & Chein, 2017, p. 8).

Conclusion

Mobile phones have proved to pose significant influence on the users. It provides several benefits such as strengthening relationships between peers, promote higher learning and importance in language learning. However, it poses considerable damages ranging from health and disconnecting relationships. The paper has critically described the effect of mobile phone in a broad context.

References

Abu-Shanab, E., & Haddad, E. (2015). The Influence of Smart Phones on Human Health and Behavior: Jordanians' Perceptions. International Journal of Computer Networks and Applications, 2(2). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281035417_The_Influence_of_Smart_Phones_on_Human_Health_and_Behavior_Jordanians'_Perceptions

Cooper, C. (2017). The Influence of the Mobile Phone on Young Adult Communication. Retrieved from https://www.researc...