How Smartphones have impacted People’s Lives

This article discusses the impact of smartphones on different aspects of human life including business, education, social life, and health. It highlights the advantages and disadvantages of smartphone use and raises concerns about cyberbullying, addiction, and security issues.

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How Smartphones have impacted People’s Lives
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How Smartphones have impacted People’s Lives
With over one billion users globally and 2.6 million apps available, smartphones are
affecting daily life in some surprising ways. The acceptance of Smartphone has been remarkable
all over the world. According to Bian and Leung (2015), over 80% of the population in the world
use mobile devices, and 43% of mobile users in the USA use Smartphone (63). According to a
study by Compete, a firm that deals with web analytics, about 65% of people use their
Smartphones to post status updates, read news feeds, post photos and read and reply to messages.
This indicates that now individuals are departing from PCs and moving towards Smartphones. It
is true that the smartphones being a very new discovery of humanity have become an intrinsic
part of human’s life.
Smartphones have impacted all facets of human life. In business, the smartphone has
created new dimensions. In a brief period, a significant number of Smartphone have been
invented that offered a chance for firms to capitalize on the development of mobile application
and new business dimensions in market space. For instance, there are many and different
smartphone’s applications from different vendors including iPhone, Android, Blackberry,
Microsoft, etc (Croteau and Hoynes, 2013, p. 25). The use of smartphone has also impacted on
marketing and promotion of products. According to Van Deursen et al. (2015), advertising is an
ancient concept but the facets of smartphone have enhanced it by making it more efficient (413).
Use of smartphone has become an essential aspect of the life of each student, and a
means to search for the information on the internet. The increasing demand for smartphone,
Internet availability and high-speed mobile browsing has left the use of the smartphone as the
best alternative channel to provide education services. According to Ventola (2014),
smartphones use offer users an opportunity to get educational benefits at any time and at

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anyplace (401). Besides, the use of smartphones in the education sector has enhanced the
collaboration between teachers and their students. For instance, students with health problems or
who are not able to attend schools for unavoidable reasons can access their classes with the help
of smartphone rather than falling behind because of unexpected circumstances.
The smartphone is also widely used to access health-related services. These days, the
smartphone has many applications to assist the users in promoting substitute treatment options,
managing prescriptions, to authenticate prescriptions and to compare prices for different health
services providers. According to Steinhubl, Muse, and Topol (2015), there exist a significant
number of healthcare and medical apps for Smartphone including reference guides, personal
health, medical calculators, drug references and lifestyle applications (2836). With smartphone
apps, patients and their relatives are able to contact healthcare specialists easily to offer detailed
information and solutions in areas of neurology, pediatrics, neonatology, radiology, and makes
the ongoing education of health activities easily accessible.
Social life domain has faced the most significant impact of smartphone user. Amidst
increased activities in a busy world, smartphone had enabled people to remain connected with
relatives, friends and other people from the outer circles. Accordingly, the smartphone has
facilitated a constant communication of people leading to increased safety for children at home
or attending schools. According to Sarwar and Soomro (2013), traditional mobile phones has
offered this type of support for the most extended duration, but smartphone provides additional
convenient abilities to connect with children and know their location anytime (220).
Furthermore, a smartphone gives people an opportunity to become a journalist at any time
anywhere. Smartphone features such as camera enable persons to capture any video at any point

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in time and share it with others using social internet-based options to become a one-time
journalist.
The use of smartphone has also contributed tremendously to the human psychology and
in several ways. According to a survey Salehan and Negahban (2013), the smartphone acts a
means to deal with stress in a busy work life by enabling users to socialize with their families
and friends when they get time (2635). Besides, smartphone users can interact and to stay
informed about the latest developments and news in the social and political circles leading to
reduced levels of work stress. Risselada, Verhoef, and Bijmolt, (2014). Also notes that smart
users of smartphone benefits for using smartphones as they are not only able to get entertained
but also to use their smartphone to access useful information access like newest technology
updates, news headlines, and real-time presented stories from valued international news outlets
(54). It is widely accepted that some video games have been used to impact positively on people
by establishing their empathic affinities.
Whereas smartphone use has been widely hailed for impacting on the life of the humanity
in all facets of life, it has also been critiqued for different reasons. Along with their fanciful apps,
smartphones allow students to connect on social networking sites, play online games, watch
movies and even check e-mails which is one of the sources of disruption. According to Park and
Lee (2013), smartphone use not only distracts the user-students but also sometimes divert other
student users and in other cases the whole class (496). Furthermore, Lathia et al. (2013) explain
that it is not easy for students to cheat using the ordinary mobile phones but it is easy for them to
use smartphones to obtain answers on the Internet thus promoting cheating in exams (67).
Smartphone’s addiction is also a severe problem that affects many especially the youths.
According to Gikas and Grant (2013), around 8.9% of Smartphone users are addicted to

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smartphone and 12% misuse social networking sites including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook
(22). In most cases, smartphone use is not the problem, but when they corrupt the brain of the
user taking the essential and useful functions of the brain. Another psychological effect of
smartphone use that users check their phones nearly all the times while with family, at work
time, or even when with friends which limits conversations. According to Donker et al., 59% of
Smartphone users check their phones no less than thrice in an hour (157). This habit has resulted
caused separations in marriages as people become so glued to their phones thus limiting effective
communication geared towards achieving great steps in marital lives.
The addiction to a smartphone has a significant influence on the life of the people. These
impacts have had a severe implication on the lives of the people. According to a study conducted
by Salehan and Negahban (2013), 33% of workers admitted having that they spend most of their
times on smartphones checking for updates on their emails and social media (2635). The
addiction associated with the use of smartphones affects the social life of the people, their
family, and creates frictions in their daily lives. Notably, applications installed on mobile phones
allow image and video editing making it possible for individuals to manipulate the actual content
with their version of the same. Therefore, the authenticity of the information on the internet is
under scrutiny and requires critical appraisal and assessment to test the validity and authenticity.
In another study conducted by Sarwar and Soomro (2013), organizations expect their employees
to respond to the online conversations immediately even outside the working hours and the
employees feel compelled to use their smartphones (218). In the words of Ventola (2014), many
users of smartphones engage in a routine check of their gadgets creating a compulsive trend of
chronic behavior, and it is subject to increasing stress in their lives (360). The constant use of
smartphones is responsible for the increasing distinction between work and family life. Indeed,

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the spread of smartphones has transferred work to the home setting making people abscond
family duties.
The issue of cyberbullying has intensified in the modern society. The advent of
technology and smartphone and its interconnectedness to the internet and anywhere adds to this
issue and makes it severe. Therefore, the young generation has been able to access irrelevant
content, facilitates workers to access social websites and other websites while at the workplace,
and facilitates access of irrelevant content by students on the internet (Van Deursen et al., 2015,
pp. 418). This necessitates for the maximum administering of the substance that their children
access on the internet. In the words of Lathia et al. (2013), social networking and the increased
use of the internet are likely to become the next target for criminals (69). Indeed, cybercrime has
intensified making youths and children vulnerable insecure in the digital age. According to
Demirci et al. (2015), security holes among several smartphones were exploited through
malicious malware found on several phones from different vendors (88). Therefore, the
proliferation of the digital age and the augmenting use of mobile gadgets make it challenging to
contain illegal operations online rendering the safety of the public at the question.
While smartphones offer users a smooth and efficient means to connect with family, co-
workers, and friends, excessive use is believed to take a significant toll on human health.
Smartphone are considered to transmit radio frequencies which are a form of radiations, and
prolonged exposure is thought to be harmful to human skin and still (Demirci, Akgönül, and
Akpinar, 2015, p. 87). Besides, staring at smartphones for long has been said to cause vision
problems in life because screens of smartphones are smaller than PCs screens, which means that
people are made to strain their eyes to read messages and any other content.

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In conclusion, the advent of technology has a sizeable effect on the users that have both
ramifications and advantages. Notably, people have been connected to each other all over the
world improving the social life among them. Smartphones have made it possible for human
beings to attain and realize the digital age is ensuring that humanity has become advanced.
Indeed, people have been able to improve education using mobile application that educates
people. The business world also reaps several benefits from the use of smartphones by ensuring
that market their products and services to users of mobile phones and social networks. Notably,
the smartphones are common among people, and it is easy for them to access marketing sites for
businesses. However, smartphones come with demerits that raise a question about the future of
technological advancement in the modern society. The access to irrelevant content by youths and
children in the smartphones thanks to their growth raises security issues. Social life among
people has also faced disintegration owing to the time taken on social media and networking
online. It appears that people no longer to create personal interaction as they can conduct their
communication using the mobile phones. Moreover, the use smartphones have increased
cybercrime and safety concerns for both the youths and the adults because of the nonexistence of
essential security features to prevent hacking and account management. Consequently, it is
significant for stakeholders in technological advancement to make sure that safety for users is
guaranteed.
Reference List

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