Smartphone Affects on Society

Smartphones have become very popular and can make our lives easier; however, they have many negative effects too. Considering the growing use of smartphones and that many of you in this classroom have a smartphone, I decided to let you in on the astonishing impact of smartphones and the pros and cons they provide.

The three main points I’m interested in speaking about today are: The growing popularity and dependency of smartphones is increasing more and more every day. Smartphones kill our focus and make it harder to learn. Smartphones can help by feeding us knowledge and foster important conversations.

With these points in mind, the first one I want you to think about is the growing popularity and dependency of smartphones is increasing more and more every day. For instance, surveys have confirmed that we take our phone just about everywhere. Who now has their phone with them? How often do you not have it with you? If you were to ask me these questions my answer would be exactly this “Oh I always have my phone with me! I don’t know what I would do without it. Did you know about 78% of teens have a cell phone and almost half of those phones are smartphones. Gartner newspaper said “Smartphone sales accounted for 55 percent of overall mobile phone sales in third quarter of 2013”. Smartphones are taking hours of our sleep away. They are a very good way to listen to music and use the internet, but at night many people stay up to long focusing on their smartphones. About 86% of phone- owning teens sleep with their devices right next to them. Increasing dependence is occurring because new applications come out every day for smartphones. These apps allow a person to go from playing a game to getting directions to a destination. I have a feeling as the years go on, there will be many more new and improved or advanced smartphones and people will become even more dependent on them.

My second point is that smartphones kill our focus and make it harder to learn. Everywhere you look people are glued to their screen, and we’re all missing out on opportunities to appreciate the world and people around us. Have you seen the video “Look Up” by Gary Turk? If any of you have, you would know that Gary states almost exactly that. We’re failing to notice things around us. I can only assume that most of you in this classroom have more of a conversation through text then you do with actually people in person because that is a much easier way of communication. Am I right? I personally can’t go an hour without checking my phone. You know why? Because I’m always texting. According to my sisters and family, I text 24/7, which I guess that means even when I’m sleeping. The lack of focus that smartphones can cause leads to major drawbacks in productivity. Don’t get me wrong they can help look up many things, but apps or messages on your phone are constantly sending you notifications distracting you from your work.  For example, I was working on my speech and my phone goes off- it’s a message so I take time away from improving my speech to read and reply to that message. Smartphones can keep us from listening to our parents and focusing on learning or doing stuff we need to get done.