The Smart Phone

Name 1
The Smart Phone
Student’s Name
University
Instructor
Date

Name 2
The Smart Phone
The everyday object that I relate with is the smartphone. The smartphone is the modern
day artifact that everybody interacts with every time, it is the last thing we look at before retiring
to bed and the first thing that one looks at when they wake up. Although it is not that old in our
lives and started being common in the twenty-first century, it has shaped life and changed
everything and the way people interact (McGuigan 2005, p. 51). Today the smartphone is the
mediator in everyday life and one of the manufactured objects in history that have been so
ubiquitous than it. Garcia (200, p. 149) suggests that individuals have artefacts in their life that
they attached meaningful value to them. The smartphone is one of the artifacts that people hold
in the society today. The reason why the object is popular is its portability and the ability to do
several functions like communication, taking pictures, recording videos and even other
application enabled purposes.
The first time I encountered the smartphone was when I graduated from high school and
was given one as a gift. At first, the only thing I did with it was to call family and friends before
its meaning kept on increasing and increasing. Today, the smartphone is part of everyday life and
I cannot afford to spend even five minutes without it. For example, when traveling, I can forget
anything else but I do not remember a single time that I left the phone behind. This is thus a
permanent object in my life that I am not sure if it will ever lose its meaning and purpose.
Chatterjee (2014, p. 59) suggests that the smartphone is an indicator of modernity and
social change that defines the shift from the traditional society to the modern society defined by
the information age that we live in today. The smartphone is an evolution of the ordinary button
phone and the desktop computer which were integrated into one to allow information transfer.
Today, Park (2005, p. 263) adds that the smartphone has changed everything and is thus part of

Name 3
people’s life since everything can be done on the phone. With the rise of mobile phone
applications, society has changed the way people interact and the traditional aspects of society,
family and social life are slowly evolving and changing. Ingis (2005, p. 43) suggests that
technology has changed the way people approach issues in life and relate to each other. With the
smartphone, everything is possible from searching answers and solutions to most issues in life
which make people less dependent on each other due to the alterations in everyday life.
Further, Agar (2003, p. 22) states that the smartphone defines how social needs shape the
society and lead to the development of a culture or patterns in our life. For example in the study
that analyzed the words used in text messages and phone conversations, there were differences in
the language and words used in text messages as compared to phone calls because text
messaging has evolved due to the use of mobile phones. Pinch (2010, p. 411) suggests that
technology is one of the drives of change that is able to change the society as people have to
adapt their lifestyle to new ways of living with the technology. The smartphone has completely
changed the social life of people because it has entered life and defined its role beyond the
simple communication tool to a social artifact that defines the kind of life that people lead, their
social status. Today, Scott (2009, p. 130) suggests that the social status of people can be defend
by the symbols that they hold or possess. For example, the type of car, clothing jewelry, house
and even smartphone that one possesses can explain patterns in their life and the social status that
they hold in the society. Thus a smartphone can be used to define the social status of an
individual in the society.
Today, the smartphone has changed my approach to life and how things can change with
the advent of technology. The smartphone offers several options that can be applied to make
one’s life better. With the different options that it offers, I can use the smartphone as a