Cell phones take over people's lives

Cell phones take over people's lives

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 By Minu Jung

In the year of 1947, the fundamental idea behind the mobile phone was created. It was nothing fancy just a clever mechanism for long-distance communication. Sixty four years later, the cell phone has evolved into something that barely resembles the original, beast-like structure. Now, smart-phones reign over the world, ostentatiously boasting touch screens, fast internet connections and games. The original purpose of the cell phone - a device to promote fast and easy means of communication, has been lost behind the great façade of capitalism and consumer demand. The exponential increase in communication data and speed has left the world in a societal dilemma that remains at the core of the first world countries today. While virtual societies on the World Wide Web thrive in these conditions, real relationships stagnate and languish.


To begin with, everywhere one looks, people have cell phones grasped tightly in their hands all the time, fingers constantly caressing the blinking screen. In school, there is always a person in class whose eyes are glued onto a bright device underneath the desk and refuses to communicate with the rest of the class. Data to each other are not conveyed through the mouth, but through the medium of the internet via the mechanical movements of the fingers. Sincerity of the message cannot be clearly seen, but has to be\ deciphered. Because texting is so much more efficient than speaking, we become slothful. The ubiquitous presence of the phone has led people to abandoning real life conversation and they seek to hide behind the veneer of social networking services and texting.

Speaking from a personal note, I remember a case where cell phones had a detrimental effect on a family dinner. While everyone was eating and talking around the dinner table, my sister was immersed in the world of the smart phone. Her fingers ran up and down the screen, replying to the barrage of text messages from her very many friends, many of whom she rarely meets in real life. Even when our parents called her and addressed her, she looked up as if she was distracted and talked as if family communication was not as worthy as the conversation between online friends. Her priorities were clear and it was unethical. Thus the atmosphere of the table degraded to a level of awkwardness and frustration that made everyone uncomfortable. Cell phone dissolves unity within a family.

It is not just personal experience that speaks against the phone, but basic human psychology. When you invite a friend over, and all you do is wait for text messages from another person, you are going to create an uncomfortable and uncivil situation. It is only logical that the proliferation of phones and the increase of the augmented times spent on the device will create a generation that is in desperate need of people who have real communication skills. People will not be able to confront or connect with someone face to face because when a person communicated only by writing, he feels more secure and more confident than he would be in real life.

A deterioration in people skills is not the only negative societal effect. Cell phones and increased useof digital technology has led to the destruction of the days of books. Gone are days when people had their noses stuck in great classics, immersed in the romantic world of the Bennets, the harsh, cold worlds of Raskolnikov and the radical world of Emil Sinclair. Because entertainment is only a click away, there is an incentive to play instead of working. Education falls and ignorance rises. Basic grammatical errors are constantly present and advanced vocabulary is seldom used. Advancement is stagnating.

This problem’s genesis lies at the core mindset and fundamental structure of society and capitalism. All our life is focused on overcoming our next opponent, regardless of your affiliation. Emotions or desires. In this capitalistic society, everything is centralized on competition. If someone gets a grade percent average, you must get a better one. If someone gets a high SAT score, you must get a score that transcends his. If someone gets the latest phone, you must also get it. Thus the vicious cycle exacerbates at an exponential rate. When your son’s gets his first phone in third grade, your son must get it in second grade. We become indoctrinated to the idea of phones ever since we are young.


Regardless of its effects, we have senselessly embraced new technology without much evaluation. Phones thus became an integral part of society. We inhale it, we drink it and we smoke it; and it feels good for a while until its the poison subtly laced into the solution contaminates our world. In the blink of an eye, we are attached to it, just like cancer patients are attached to life support.


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