The Impact Of Smart Phones On Society English Language Essay

The Impact Of Smart Phones On Society English Language Essay Today people of the world have a new addiction. This new addiction is known as the smartphone. The smartphones of today have so many features that the owners of them can hardly seem to put them down just for a second. These smartphones not only offer some of the same features that a personal computer would, but they also provide a very high level of entertainment. Even with all the capabilities that smartphones offer they still require and great level of understanding and responsibility. The purpose of this paper is to help others understand the direction of smartphone technology, the ways smartphone technology changes society, understand the impact of change and manner in which we live our lives, and how smartphones could potentially create hazardous situations. The impact of smart phone on society People tend to have a busy life in these days due to job, school and personal issues. Therefore, they prefer to have a mobile device which satisfies their needs to stay in touch and be reachable at anytime. Smart phone is one of those mobile devices which allow its users to be able to communicate and exchange information such as text, document, picture, and video through internet or mobile networks. Smart phones have brought a whole new meaning to the term multitasking. Before, it was impossible to keep connected with co-workers in your office while you were at the grocery store picking up some necessary items. You could never have had a three-way business conference while you were preparing dinner or been able to deal with a business client from home while caring for a sick child. Smart phones have enabled us to do various tasks at the same time. Because of its portable, people seems to be more comfortable using smart phone as a primary communication device than desktop or home phon e. Furthermore, it is an efficient and discreet way to communicate with friends and family members. However, not only these smart phones have positive impacts on our society, but it also carries negative impacts as well; and mobile phone radiation is one of its examples. In assessing the positive impact of smart phones on our society, there are two major areas which have vastly affected by smart phones, and they are business and socialization. Over the past couple years, the number who use smart phones has been increased rapidly. According to one research companys longitudinal surveys, about 42 percent of Americans owned smart phones in December 2009 (mobilehealthnews, 2010). And it will continue to grow in the next decade as Cody Barbierri has mentioned in his article smart phones are one of the hottest growth sectors in our economy right now. Usage continues to grow, even after significant growth over the past two years (Cody Barbierri, 2010). With huge powerful applications, smart phones allow its users to stay in touch with their work and extend their social connection in many ways. Many of the smart phones applications available today will not impact a majority of peoples lives; but it does impact groups of people who take advantage of it, inclu ded businessmen. Because of the requirement of the economy, many businessmen prefer to have a smart phone which allows them to keep connect with their business clients, checking e-mail, texting or browsing web while they are on the road. In reality, because of its portable, smart phones lets more people contact their office under many circumstances. It has enabled users to keep connect to anyone at anytime from almost anywhere. Based on the survey by Harris Interactive website: 60 percent of workers contact the office with a smart phone or mobile device while on vacation (Dennis McCafferty, 2010). In addition, 62 percent of workers use these devices to attend to business matters during a meal (Dennis McCafferty, 2010). On the other hand, workers are more comfortable to communicate and access to the internet by using smart phones than any primary computing device while they are not in the office. As a slogan for all smart phones users your life is in your pocket, more people are attracted to these devices which own a lot of useful features. Further than that, the latest generation of smart phones have provided more great social applications and powerful entertaining function to anyone who love social network. In fact, today more people like to be able to connect to their friends through social networks. These social networks are a new trend in online communication. Therefore, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter apps have became a standard requirement for people who would like to own a smart phone and teenager are among those people. According to the Harris Interactive study, second to clothing, teens say a smart phone tells the most about a persons social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes (Wirelessandmobilenews, 2010). Based on the study above, smart phones are becoming a social necessity which teens cannot be without. On the other hand, a majority group of teens views their smart phone as the key to their social life. From texting to talking, and logging on to social networking sites, teens carry smart phones to have access to friends, family and current events. That is the reason why broadband connections, web browsers, e-book readers, office apps, maps of the world, motion sensors, HD video cameras, GPS are the most great features which all smart phones bring it to users. Imagine the time before the appearance of the smart phone; it was impossible to shop online during lunch time without a PC or laptop. However, with the support of smart phones, shopping online in these days is as easy as making a phone call. In addition, real-time video calls empower people to not only talk to each other while on the move, but also see what each other means through their facial expressions. Therefore, smart phone is an important device which people cannot leave home without it. In my opinion, smart phone with useful applications will replace the PC as primary connected-computing device in next decade. There is no little doubt that smart phones have definitely made our lives much more convenient in many ways. However, smart phones have also changed the way that people interact with each other. Smart phones allow its users to be in a conversation without showing their personal expressions. Unlike a face-to-face conversation where one requires direct eye contact, smart phones enables user to say things through instant messaging that you wouldnt dare say in face-to-face contact or even on the telephone where you can hear each others voice (Harmon, 2003). That is the reason why people use smart phones for discussion, which they prefer not to have in person. As a result, we are beginning to lose the face-to-face contact that was such an important part of our lives in the past. The contact with real-time voice call is being replaced by multimedia messages application of smart phones. Not only change the way that people contact each other, but smart phones also emit radiation which some b elieve may be harmful to human health. The emission of radiation from mobile phone may cause serious damages to human in long-term since it uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. That is the reason why mobile phone are often prohibited in hospitals and on airplanes, as the radiofrequency signals may interfere with medical devices and navigation systems. In addition, sexual soliciting through mobile device is also a negative impact which smart phones have brought it to users. This issue is increasing at a rapid rate and becoming one of the biggest fear to children and their parents. According to US researchers, children sexual solicitations were reported via social networking sites is 27 per cent in 2008 (Ybarra Mitcell, 2008). Although most of these incidents took place among teenage girls, many of them took place among under aged boys who are a target of homosexuals as well. The problem in this issue is online criminals who use smart phones to exchange their sexual material. The rise in this crime is often attributed to one main cause. That is many children, generally in their teenage years, may be very curious or interested in sexual materials or information. Therefore, they often use social networks to find answers to those questions which they may be too embarrassed to discuss with their parents or other family members. That is the reason why many online criminals have targeted young people in this group of age. They are aware of these needs and desires, so they use their knowledge to lure teens into a sexual conversation. According to researchers in Sean Alfano article, they did find that in more than a quarter of the solicitations, youths were asked to submit sexual photographs of themselves, some of which may be a crime under federal child-pornography laws (2006). As a result, it would be no surprise that smart phones is a useful device for online criminal to be able to drag teenagers into a sexual conversation, or to exchange sexual video. Therefore, the concern of parent to their childrens activity should be a necessity. It is very important to tell teenagers about the negative aspect of sexual conversation with strangers through mobile phones. As a useful mobile device for modern society, smart phone is the most productive technology that I have ever seen. Not only provides a lot of powerful features, but smart phone is also an important mobile device which a group of people cannot leave home without it. However, smart phones also have some negative impacts as well. Therefore, people should consider before own it. To understand the direction of Smartphone technology From a wireless companys point of view, they have to understand many things about smartphones in order to be considered as an elite or successful retailer. They must have a clear understanding of the direction in which smartphones are heading. This includes things such as: the progression of smartphones, competition, and adaptability. We live in a world today that relies on data communications. Smartphones can assists users in many different ways when it comes to data needs. Since the Smartphone has come into existence, it has constantly evolved into an improving piece of technology. This is something that will always occur in regards to smartphones, because companies have to either keep up or get left behind. When designing a Smartphone, there are several things that a company should keep in mind. Things such as consumer needs and costs. Sometimes, depending on what features the phone offers, cost is not a factor. If buyers want something bad enough, they will definitely pay the pri ce to obtain it. The consumer needs must cater to different groups also. For example a business may require that different needs be met than that of everyday home users that just desire a Smartphone for personal entertainment. During this portion of the paper we will look at the three things mentioned above which again are: the progression of smartphones, competition, and adaptability. Since the creation of the Smartphone, there has been nothing but a steady progression with its features and capabilities. The first Smartphone was the Simon created in 1992 by IBM (Camera Phones Plaza in Smartphone, 2009). This phone was unveiled in Las Vegas during the COMDEX show. The Simon had features such as: a world clock, email, calculator, and calendar. This phone also introduced the concept of the onscreen keyboard. The onscreen keyboard took some getting use to at first, because people were not yet comfortable with the size of the virtual onscreen keys. Just by looking at those features you can see that they are some of the same features offered by computers. Many people view the smartphones of today as mini computers. However the Smartphone has some advantages over computers, because you get the features offered by your computer plus mobile phone capabilities. Not to mention just the convenience of being able to do certain things on the go without having to stop and sign o n to a computer each and every time you want to send an email or edit your personal calendar. Now that smartphones are higher in demand than they once were; Creators of these devices are starting to implement things such as: expanded memory, larger screens, and faster processors. Smartphones have also progressed as far as their physical appearance. Phones such as the iphone and windows mobile now have a sleeker thin type look. These phones now also provide HD quality video which makes them very appealing for watching movies, sports, and other types of streaming media. Competition is what drives companies that are in the Smartphone market. These companies understand that in order to survive, they must keep up with their foes. Its not uncommon for companies to take notes from or mimic their opponents designs in some form or fashion. As of right now with 20.5 million Android units sold in the 3rd quarter of 2010, the Android OS has jumped ahead of the iphone into 2nd place with a 25.5 percent share of the Smartphone market (Lilly, 2010). The thing that has become a common trend in todays world of Smartphone competition, is partnering. For example you have Apple and ATT who paired up to bring people the iphone and then you have Google who has paired up with numerous wireless providers such as T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint to bring consumers the Android. The way it works is that one carrier provides the back bone data network and the other provides the Smartphone itself. The Android operating system comes installed primarily on Motorola devices. Now, w hat really elevates the competition to another level when it comes to these smartphones are the applications they provide. The Android Market currently offers around 100,000 applications and over two-billion downloads to date (Lilly, 2010). These applications include many different things from games, videos, and music. There was a time when smartphones were primarily used to meet business needs but today people also use them for entertainment purposes as well. As we move forward into the future we can only expect to see these devices become more and more creative. Adaptability goes back to what has been stated throughout the text in this paper. In order for companies to survive they must adapt to new technologies, or they will get left behind. Adaptability goes along with customer demands. This, most of the time has to do with trends also, such as whats hot and whats not in the world of smartphones. According to channelnews.com the black berry Smartphone will still be at the top of the charts heading into the year 2015 (Jones, 2010). If other Smartphone competitors would like to keep this from happening then their best bet is to keep adapting to future trends in technology. When choosing a Smartphone now, consumers really base their choices on the operating system thats running on the phone. Different Smartphone operating systems provide different types of security, applications and device management capabilities. Those three things can be viewed as the key determinants of success for each operating system, but not necessarily in that order. T he battle for Smartphone supremacy is now being compared to the battle for the desktop that occurred in the 1980s. Rod Hall who is a vice president at JP Morgan once said One of the things people talk a lot about is the horizontal example of the PC in the 1980s. This battle was won based on a market that became very horizontally focused (Handy, 2010). Some people actually believe that the success of a Smartphone actually has nothing to do with the operating system on the phone but actually the network thats providing the services for the phone. Then you have some people that believe the choice is based on a combination of both the Operating System and the providers network. 3G has been a very big selling point by ATT / Apple for the iphone and by Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint for the Android devices. Supposedly now Sprint is one of the first telecommunication providers to offer 4G speeds on their mobile and data network. In order for these other companies to keep up at some point we should expect them to start offering 4G speeds as well. Here recently, Verizon has been launching a 4G campaign with through a TV commercial. Just some brief information for people that dont understand what 3G and 4G speeds provide, these speeds offer extremely fast data transfer and video streaming capabilities. The iphone 4 comes with an application for Netflix and the Android comes with an application for Blockbuster. These two companies understood that they had to adapt to the service that the other company was offering or possibly lose customers. Reports show that right now the iphone platform currently has ten times the number of applications that are being offered by the Android platform, so this is something that Im sure Android developers are aware of and constantly working on (Handy, 2010). Android is still fairly new so it may take some time for them to catch up with the number of applications being offered by Apple. As of November 11, 2010 Smartphone sells are up 96% bu t they still trail feature phones in number (Gahran, 2010). This does not mean that feature phone users dont prefer smartphones; a lot of it can be contributed to the prices of smartphones. Not just that but also consumers may not be willing to break their contract with their current provider to switch to a new one just for the sake of owning a certain smartphone. Of the 417 million new phones that were sold in the 3rd quarter of 2010, 81 million were smartphones (Gahran, 2010). This is where we saw the 96% increase from the 3rd quarter of 2009. Since we saw such a large increase in the amount of smartphone users in such a short time, we can only assume that more and more people will make the switch and ultimately join the smartphone society. Smartphones and Hazardous situations Smart Phone/mobile device technology while it is a revolutionary breakthrough in communications it also carries hazards that affect our physical bodies, creates health hazards, safety hazards and environmental hazards throughout its use. The most common of the hazards created by use of the mobile device is over use of the thumb. This generates pain and numbness which ultimately can impede the use of the hand to grasp and hold items. The following example displays how a person can overly work the thumb to create this situation. James Hofheins loves his job as a social media representative for a Utah retailer. All workday long, the veteran customer service representative monitors facebook and twitter for people talking about his company. If theres a problem, he follows up to make sure things get taken care of. Hofheins is so enamored with social media he stays on Twitter long after the work day ends to keep tabs on world news, tweet friends and retweet interesting tidbits that float across his Twitter stream. Away from his desk, a palm treo is his keyboard of choice for tuning into twitter, sending emails and texting. But all that connectivity is taking a toll on Hofheins thumb, his right one to be exact. The 45-year-old uses it exclusively to type and text and lately hes been on Twitter so much it hurts. It throbs from the tip to the bottom joint where it connects to the hand, he says. Its stiff, its hard to extend and sometimes the tip is numb, he says (Rafter, 2009). A similar hazard affecting the use of the hand is over exerting the index finger. Society has termed this injury as the iPod Finger. It is easily understood how this type of injury could occur since it is one of the main fingers used to operate devices. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Tamara James, ergonomics director at Duke University and Health System in Durham, N.C., has heard people complain of iPod finger, overusing their index finger to spin the selector wheel of an iPod player. iPhone users have come to doctors complaining of tennis elbow-like symptoms, what one woman with the problem calls her iPhone elbow. The American Physical Therapists Association has discussed how typing on itty-bitty keyboards leads to BlackBerry thumb since 2006 (Rafter, 2009). There are still some inconclusive studies on finger injuries resulting from texting and emailing. These injuries could be temporary or increase strength of the fingers instead of weakening it. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Early research has shown younger pe ople could possibly develop stronger thumb muscles from all the emailing and texting they do, its way too soon to tell. They could be protecting themselves for the future or setting themselves up for problems later on. We dont know, James says (Rafter 2009). Even though these injuries could be self treated by minimizing the use of or stop use of the mobile device temporary to allow rest or healing, it still pays to be conscientious of the widening effect it could have on business industries worldwide and implement measures to correct the problem. For instances in the 1980s and 1990s, the appearance of office PCs led to a wave of carpal tunnel, RSI, and other musculoskeletal injuries that tapered off once workers, HR and tech support teams figured out the importance of proper wrist support, seating and posture, and federal and state worker safety agencies passed ergonomics guidelines (Rafter, 2009). Whether in the corporate world or everyday society there are a few remedies that can be implemented to alleviate injuries and pain caused to our thumbs through the use of mobile phones. According to Michelle V. Rafter (2009). Maintain a neutral posture. Some thumb and elbow pain is caused by holding the joint in a fixed or awkward position for a long time. If youre getting numb, compression of the nerve between the hand and the phone causing it, James says. Alleviate it by using sitting or standing correctly as you type, she says. Support your arms. If youre sitting to type emails or text for an extended time, use a pillow or other prop to support your arms and hands while you work. Take frequent breaks. When desktop PCs became ubiquitous,  people had to be taught to take breaks to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and related maladies. The same holds true for iPhones and PDAs taking breaks often to give your hands a rest, James says. Switch things up. If you normally use one hand to type or text, give it a break and type with the other one. Do stretching exercises. The American Society of hand Therapists recommends a variety of stretching exercises in a consumer education bulletin on hand-held electronics and video game injury prevention tips. They include: Opening your hands and spreading your fingers are far as possible, then holding for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. With hands laced together, turn your palms away from your body and extend your arms overhead. Stretch your upper torso through your shoulders to your hands. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. There are other hazards that people may not clearly associate with use of mobile phones. These hazards may be overlooked in the fine print of the mobile phone instructions or not well stated in them for consumer to comprehend the dangers. For example, It is a well known fact that mobile phones use radio frequency technology.  These radiations make mobile phones hazardous.   People living in developed nations like the U S and even developing countries like India are gradually becoming addicted to mobile phones.   More than 4 billion people all over the world use mobile phones.   Most of them are blissfully ignorant of the hazards of using mobile phonesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Radhakrishna, 2010). There have been instances of injury and even death of people as a result of these overlooked hazards. The following categories of safety, health and environmental hazards enlighten to the cause of fore mention circumstances befallen to people. The first category deals with safety hazards associated with use of the mobile phone. As with all technology there is a possibility of it affecting or causing a disruption of something else already in use. Manufactures generally provided some type of warning indicator or instructions of where not to use or place the technology. This evidently is often overlooked because à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ there have been instances of mobile phones exploding, causing deaths.   This can happen due to overheating defective battery or even wrong usage of battery or charger.   Mobile phones are known to disrupt normal functionality of pacemakers.   Mobile phone usage while driving has increased road accidents.   It is estimated that drivers are four times more likely to crash their cars when they are speaking on their mobile phones while driving (Radhakrishna, 2010).   Important to note theses hazards can sometimes occur due to consumers not heeding warning or instructions provided by manufactures of the product. The following example depicts information on the likelihood cell phone use while driving would cause a crash or near crash event, according to (Box, 2009). Table 1 New Data from VTTI Provides Insight into Cell Phone Use and Driving Distraction Cell Phone Task Risk of Crash or Near Crash Event Light Vehicle/Cars Dialing Cell phone 2.8 times as high as non-distracted driving Talking/Listening to Cell Phone 1.3 times as high as non-distracted driving Reaching for object (i.e. electronic device and other) 1.4 times as high as non-distracted driving Heavy Vehicles/Trucks Dialing Cell phone 5.9 times as high as non-distracted driving Talking/listening to Cell Phone 1.0 times as high as non-distracted driving Use/Reach for electronic device 6.7 times as high as non-distracted driving Text messaging 23.2 times as high as non-distracted driving The second category is in regard to health hazards of using mobile phones. When watching television we sometime here about cases of tumors and cancers affecting people but often it attributed to diets and lifestyles. There are other conditions believed to be responsible for these health vulnerabilities. For instance, Excessive use of mobile phones is believed to increase the risk of brain cancer, especially among children.   Children have thinner skulls and fragile nervous system.   Daily usage of mobile phones for ten years doubles the risk of tumor of auditory nerve which connects the ear to the brain.   People using mobile phones for more than four hours every day are at the risk of lowering their sperm count (Radhakrishna, 2010). These alarming health hazards should be taken seriously. People could lower chances of these hazards occurring in them by limiting the use of mobile phones for themselves and especially for their children. The final category deals with the environmental hazards of using mobile phones. This information alludes to facts of how the forms of cell phone technology can disrupt natural environment in negative ways. For example Excessive radiation is believed to be causing extinction of many species of small birds like sparrows.   This will definitely have a huge negative impact on our environment.   We depend on bees for crops, because they pollinate crops.   These bees are disappearing.   Radiation from mobile phones are interfering with navigation system of bees and causing them to lose their way back to their hive.   As a result of this their colonies are collapsing (Radhakrishna, 2010). We could assume as technology advances the effects it has on the environment would be equally considered to limit the negative impact. The role of nature should be preserved at all cost the consequences of not do it could prove to be devastating to our environment. Understand the change and manner in which we live our lives The invention of the telephone in the late 19th century in the United States changed the way people interact and communicate. This has been paralleled in the early 21st century with the arrival of mobile phones. The cell phones have been created for adults to use business (Downes, and Aoki, 2003). This is a similar to cell phone in the early 20th century where telephone engineers explained the telephone was made for business, but it was not for social conversation (Flinchy, 1997). Today the number of people uses the cell phones growth really fast since the end of 20th century. Most families have cell phones, and some of them are not using home phones. Most people have cell phones than home phones in the United State. In the worldwide, it has more than one billion people use a cell phone. According to one of the industry analysts Wireless that between now to the years of 2020 everyone could afford a cell phone that they wish. American spends seven hours or more hours in a month talking on their cell phone on average, and it becomes more important of Americans life (Rosen, 2004). Today most of American families have cell phone. They always carry; phone whatever they go out, even at home. However, some of them use cells phone like home phone. Cell phones start to change American life since the end of 21 century, it becomes cheaper, smaller, and more convenience. With the rapid spread of technology, people change the way of life with cell phones. In 1985, according to Mobile Communications and Internet link, only 340,000 people have registered to use cell phone, but it has more than 158 million people use the cell phone in the United States (Rosen, 2004). As we could see more and more people use the cell phones today than we compare with the year 1985. One of the reason more people use the cell phone that it has more convenient than home phone. Cell phone are not only use in American families, but it also use in the medical field. Medical field could use cell phones to send ahead of the hospitals image to the injury. In England, now popular for wireless technology that allows companies to gain access to remote meters or gather information diagnosis, on-site construction workers can use cell phones to send picturing to contractors outside. Combine with the use of personal cell phones, to make appointments, locate a friend, check voicemail messages, or simply to check in at cell phone work now provides the unknown level of conv enience (Rosen, 2004). Cell phones are not even for social use for today, but it is, use for almost any business like the medical field, manufacture. ..Etc.In addition, the number of cell phones use have increased to the point of dizziness, that there are social scientists for the foreseeable future, virtually any urban residents also own a cell phone. Cell phones effect to young people, according to the research teens view their cell phones as more than just an accessory, and it is also showing four out of five teens use cell phone than before. The research also shows the sense of security these teens said about 80 percent of the cell phones have. They are also preferring texts over the phone then talking on the phone (Cell phones impact, 2008). We could see more teens use phone like the things they must have in their life. Cell phones affect the social life of teens. When the phone is no longer a luxury item, the parents are willing to equip their children for easy communication. On the other hand, Harris Interactive study the teens say a cell phone as the most popular social status or of a person, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes. The study also found the cell phones are fast becoming necessary in society youth. It is about fifty seven percent of teens view their phones as a key to their social life (Cell phones impact, 200 8). And it is about fifty seven percent of the teens that carry a cell phone to improve the quality of life. And half of them said the cell phones become a new form of the entertainment and it is about thirty percent of them use the cell phones to play games (Cell phones impact, 2008). In fact, most of teens are using cell phones away from the original intention of the parents. Refuse to stop at the hearing referred to, many children fall into addiction to expl