Smartphones: Man’s New Best Friend?

There is no invention more prominent in today’s society than the Smartphone. It is used every day for things as simple as making a call to as complex as using an application to pinpoint your exact location on Earth. I am the owner of an iPhone and it befuddles me to this day as to how a phone has come to be so advanced and influential within our daily lives.

There’s not a couple of minutes that go by when I’m out walking that I don't see people absolutely absorbed by what’s happening on their smartphones, completely oblivious to their immediate surroundings. I fear that it's a trend that is only going to get worse as technology continues to advance in the future. It can be a bit tiresome and annoying to have a conversation or arrange dinner with friends only to find that many people are too busy answering a text or checking their Twitter to enjoy the moment.

Now, I’m not against checking one’s phone from time to time or killing some time by looking at it, but person to person communications have been changed significantly by the smartphone and I’m not sure if it’s for the better or worse. The great irony of the smartphone is that while it has improved communications through texting, calling, social networking, etc., this technology has proven quite harmful to meaningful, interpersonal contact.

There have been countless instances where people have whipped out their smartphones out of sheer boredom, nervousness or on purpose when they are out on dates, at dinner or waiting in line for a coffee. I recently watched a news report that discussed an increase in smartphone-related car accidents whereby victims were too preoccupied by texting to put their phones down while driving, or to look both ways before crossing the street.

I am sometimes guilty of paying too much attention to my smartphone and I am trying to limit the amount of times I use it during the day. It is a greatly useful tool and has made my life and the lives of others a lot easier. Still, I do worry about the negatives in terms of causing too much distraction and harming the way people interact with each other on a personal basis. I read in a recent Newsweek article that a lot of Americans sleep with their smart phone. I was a bit incredulous about this, but I suppose that’s what inevitably happens now that a smartphone can do that which we once needed ten different devices to do.

I’ll leave you with this anecdote, a moment that left me quite skeptical about the positives of the smartphone. I was hanging out with friends and having a couple of laughs when there was a moment of stillness in the midst of conversation. One by one, each of them started to take out their phones, and I was then left as the only one not gazing into the alluring screen of an iPhone and other, similarly distracting smartphones. I was disappointed, sure, but I have since resigned myself to the fact that I have to get used to this tendency of people today to grab for their phones for instant stimulation. But I do miss the days when I didn’t have to worry about a smartphone coming between another human being and me.