Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making: Smartphones

This essay delves into the multifaceted impact of smartphones, examining both their advantages and disadvantages in contemporary society. It highlights the integration of mobile devices into daily life, emphasizing their role in globalization, connectivity, and access to information and entertainment. The essay explores the benefits, such as bridging technology gaps and fostering economic growth, alongside the adverse effects, including nomophobia, social pressures, and potential for addiction. The analysis includes a discussion of smartphones' influence on education, marketing, and social interaction, supported by statistical data and research findings. The essay concludes by acknowledging the significant benefits of smartphones while also advocating for controlled usage to mitigate potential negative consequences, emphasizing that the advantages of increased globalization, information sharing, and economic impacts outweigh the harms caused by these devices.

Running Head: CRITICAL THINKING AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING 1
Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making
Name:
Institution

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Introduction
Mobiles devices are integrated into the daily lives of most individuals across the world.
Majority of the smartphone users are increasingly relying on their phones in the day to day
activities. Mobile phones have facilitated globalization and increase connectivity between family
and friends. Additionally, smartphones have facilitated access to information and entertainment.
They are used in the academic field for researching, reading and reviewing scholarly articles.
Smartphones have changed dramatically the life of its users by integrating many key
functionalities such as camera and messaging into the device. Statistics indicate that more than
half of the world population owns a smartphone device. In a survey conducted in 2016 by Bank
of America, 95 percent of millennials, aged between 18 to 25 years, retaliated the importance of
smartphones in their lives. The survey additionally established that individuals check their
smartphones every 6 minutes. Amid the benefits that have been outlined, the continuous use of
smartphones has been found to have some adverse effects, especially among the millennials.
There is an issue of nomophobia, which is the anxiety that arises from being away from a
smartphone device. Every aspect has its advantages and disadvantages. With the growing
concerns surrounding the issue of smartphones, there are mixed feeling as to whether the rise in
the use of smartphones is a good or a bad thing.
Smartphones have the ubiquitous ability to bridge the technology and infrastructure gap
that exists in the developing worlds. The rise of smartphones has replaced the use of landlines
telephones because it is much easier to acquire a cell signal than to construct the labor-intensive
landlines. In the developing nations, about 84 percent of the inhabitants have access to mobile
devices whereas the use of landline is down to less than 1 percent. The prevalence use of
smartphones devices has increase globalization through the provision of interconnection

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opportunities in the developing world. Stranton university carried out extensive research in 2013,
that indicated; mobile economy contributes to over 2.4 trillion US dollars in the international
market and created over 10 million jobs (Choi, Jung & Lee, 2013). Smartphones are attributed to
the creation of new telecommunication and application industries. Similarly, they have enabled
the convenient use of financial facilities. Most banks today have developed smartphones
application that enables the users to track the activities of their bank accounts real-time at the
convenience of their smartphones.
Smartphones give users the ability to access information from any part of the world. The
user just needs to have internet connectivity and he or she can be able to be informed of what is
happening all around the world. Additionally, this increased accessibility of information has
enabled multinational cooperation to reap big on sales. Advertising companies can advertise
various brands to different users all around the world and promote trade. For example, the
Amazon online store is one of the biggest online platforms that connect customers to buyers
(Pernek, Hummel & Kokol, 2013). Through its platform, a customer in South Africa can be able
to order goods from a store in America and have it shipped within 3 working days. A survey was
done by Placecast in 2014 established that about 40 percent of consumers rely on mobile
platform reviews from other customers to inform their buying decisions. This has created a new
marketing gap for advertising companies, hence facilitating worldwide globalization through the
use of smartphones.
Smartphones are an important tool for learning. This is because the current smartphones
are equipped with applications and web browsers that allows the user to access different kind of
information when connected to the internet. Goggle is a service provider that has long been tied
with the smartphones industries. The company develops the operating system for major

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smartphone companies such as Samsung, Sony, Huawei, LG, and HTC. Apart from developing
the android operating system, Goggle develops key smartphones apps through its google
services. The company has its web browser known as Goggle Chrome that enables smartphone
user to browse various sites, among them educational sites (Keengwe, Schnellert & Jonas, 2014).
Additionally, Goggle has a platform to access e-books and peer-reviewed journals through its
academic site of Goggle Scholar (Chan, Walker & Gleaves, 2015). The advent of smartphones
has enabled students to acquire vital academic materials and information. Many of the journals
written by professors and other qualified scholars can be accessed on different websites using
smartphones. This enables the student to facilitate his studies.
Apart from the good, smartphones have been found to harm the user under various
circumstances. A few studies in the world show that continuous use of smartphones especially
during the night can affect the sleeping patterns of the user (Lanaj, Johnson & Barnes, 2014).
This is because the phones produce blue light that tricks the brain into thinking it is day time
(Ingrams, 2015). The brain, therefore, fails to produce enough sleeping hormones that are known
as melatonin. This leads to insomnia and sleep deprivation that ultimately affects the user
concentration, cause unhappiness and limits body growth.
Smartphones have also been attributed to causing increased social pressure and
distractions. Many millennials have confirmed the pressure that is involved in replying to text
messages and checking on their friends on social media websites. There has been some case of
depression and even suicide that have been reported as a result of smartphone use. This comes
with the pressures that are portrayed by social media sites. Many of the young people have the
tendencies of posting their life events in the social media platforms. However, individuals only
post the best part of their lives, giving the impression that they are doing good in life. This gives

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the pressure of competition and depression in the case that the user feels his life is not as perfect
as the others (Firth, et al., 2017). Additionally, the continuous use of smartphones limits social
interactions when everyone is glued to their phone screens. Teachers have also stated that having
a smartphone in class limits the concentration of students, negatively impacting their learning
(Ward, Duke, Gneezy & Bos, 2017). Similarly, smartphones use as increased the cases of
cyberbullying which hampers on the mental health of the user.
Smartphone use can also lead to addiction. Continuous smartphone use, especially among
young people, has been found to contribute to habitual behavior. This is because some apps in
smartphones encourage users to maintain certain ‘streaks.’ This includes social media
applications such as Instagram and Snapchat (Van Deursen, Bolle, Hegner & Kommers, 2015).
Most millennials are constantly checking their Instagram account to follow up on their favorite
celebrity or their friends and this can form a repetitive behavior (Nath & Mukherjee, 2015).
Games like Candy crush saga rewards the gamer with colorful display after completing various
levels, stimulating the brain to release the good feeling hormone, dopamine. The player is,
therefore, encouraged to continue playing to achieve this good feeling. This addiction prevents
the individual from living a healthy lifestyle.
conclusion
The foregone are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a smartphone. The
continuous use of smartphones has been found to adversely affects the millennials mostly by
giving them social pressure, altering their sleeping patterns and mental health, and predisposing
them to addiction due to the fear of missing out. However, the use of smartphone facilitates more
good than harm. In rebuttal, using the smartphones in a controlled setting can limit the adverse

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effects discussed. The good in increased globalization and sharing of information and the
economic effects associated with the use of smartphones outweighs the harm caused by the
devices.

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References
Chan, N. N., Walker, C., & Gleaves, A. (2015). An exploration of students' lived experiences of
using smartphones in diverse learning contexts using a hermeneutic phenomenological
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Choi, J., Jung, J., & Lee, S. W. (2013). What causes users to switch from a local to a global
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Firth, J., Torous, J., Nicholas, J., Carney, R., Pratap, A., Rosenbaum, S., & Sarris, J. (2017). The
efficacy of smartphone‐based mental health interventions for depressive symptoms: a
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Ingrams, A. (2015). Mobile phones, smartphones, and the transformation of civic behavior
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