Impact of Cell Phones (FINAL)

Aaron Watkins

Media Communications

Communications in Society

 

The Impact of Cell Phones

 

 

Communication strategies around the world have taken on many forms throughout the history of civilization. Whether it was a smoke signal, a telegraph or even a carrier pigeon that may or may not have made it in time; the desire to extend our lines of communication and the idea of a more seamless transaction never left our imagination. Fast forward to today’s society, you can call someone literally lifting a finger to press a button just by speaking to your phone and asking it to do so. The transition was one that took on an entity of its own, but the impact of cell phones is now beginning to show a duality of effects in the modern era. So, what did the existence of cell phones impact…? Technically, everything we do as humans involve our phones but let’s take a step to see how cell phones came to be.

Chicago-born Martin Cooper is the man who created the first cell phone. April 3rd, 1973 the first cell phone was introduced, and the phone call was made to a business rival to gloat about the new product that would take a grasp to society as a whole. 10 years later, consumers were able to purchase the first cell phone created by Motorola for the whopping price of approximately $4,000. The phone was a massive success and would have the masses gravitating towards a newer way to socialize. It’s seen that more than half of the world’s population are cell phone owners and use their phones multiple times a day because it’s a major convenience for many people around the world.

In 1992, cell phones will go in a direction that many haven’t anticipated. The first SMS (short message service) text was sent and the first message said “Merry Christmas” to be a surprise during an office party. In today’s society, we send nearly 6 billion texts a day and that is astonishing compared to what was required to even have a cell phone send a text. We now have the ability to be able to send a text saying anything to anyone and have them receive it in a matter of seconds. This is a feature people may often take for granted because this is something that has become so widely accessible with an easy-going experience for both and/or more parties involved. Not too long ago, people used to communicate by sending letters and postcards to keep in touch with someone you may not have seen in a while but now you have the option to open your phone and check Facebook or even video chat through Skype. We’ve grown so much in how we communicate with cell phones in terms of seamlessness and capability, but there’s more that cell phones have done to impact our lives.

The internet is everything, everywhere and everyone uses it to watch YouTube, to learn a new skill or even catch up with emails; cell phones made this experience mobile. The first cell phone with 3G internet speed was created in the 2003. The UK was the first to experience this new expansion one’s personal cell phone. This also has had an impact on today’s usage because everyone’s using their internet for anything they want. The power of having the ability to browse the internet as if you were on the computer within your pocket, easily provided a whole new experience. So now that this new feature exists, society had to keep up because keeping up with the trend was important but the phones that were out didn’t have the ability to do these things. A new phone will be manufactured while maintaining its individual style but completely dominating today’s market.

In 2007, the iPhone was born and grasped the world’s attention because of its simple one button design. No one has ever seen a phone with that type of design seeing that the dominant phone at the time was the Blackberry. This phone would change the course of how cell phones were designed to be more touch screen, sleeker, smoother and faster processors to be able to maneuver better. This phone has had the biggest impact on society because pop culture accepted it as a whole, people of higher social status making references and people are using this phone to create entire films off of their cell phone. Apple made sure to cater towards the consumers interests and fed into their minds by making them feel “better” about themselves with the product.

Apple has made one of the biggest impacts through their technologies, from the 1st Macintosh computer to their iPod which was available with either 5 to 10 gigabytes of memory which translated to approximately 2000 songs. They’ve always made sure that their products were not only “cool” and with the trend, but they were productive as well. The iPhone changed how everyone viewed cell phones. In this day and age, iPhones are common in society and people have “unofficially” made the iPhone the most user-friendly phone for the masses. Also, there’s a level of attachment that iPhone has on the masses as well.

The social impact of cell phones hasn’t been too positive because as people are excited about the new impact of the new technology, there are people who are having a terrible experience with it. Cell phones have been linked to certain behavioral changes amongst the masses because what was available to them and the effect of what these technologies can have on the user’s mind. This technology is essentially something new to people who haven’t had this experience before, so there will always be a drawback.

In the article ”Why It’s Bad to Use Your Phone Before Bed”, it states “Studies have shown that being exposed to the blue-and-white light given off by phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets at night prevents our brains from releasing melatonin, a hormone that tells our bodies it’s nighttime. Some experts suggest not using our devices for roughly an hour before bed could help us fall asleep faster.”. This is showing how people have been overly connected to their phone throughout their everyday lives and with that, there’s a toll for it. People are developing sleeping issues because they’re up scrolling and keeping their sleep postponed not understanding it’s taking a negative toll on their health.

Cell phones also have effect socialization in the masses because the phone their source of knowledge when curiosities are lingering. People aren’t being as connected in person seeing that you can access anyone you know if you have their contact information then it feels strenuous and pointless after a certain point in time. Everyone’s has had a moment where they were receiving a phone call and ignored because they don’t want to talk because they would rather carry out the conversation via text. Even though this may be an effect, there are several opportunities being created because of the advances in cell phone technology and social media played a significant role in this change.

Global communication was an entire process of buying a calling card, then making sure you have the right number and using that to maintain an international dialogue, those days are now obsolete with this technology. You have the ability to download an app onto your phone and instantly text whoever you want for FREE, with an app such as “WhatsApp”. This is something people from different countries value greatly because as long as you have the person, you’re trying to contact’s phone number and they have the app downloaded then its ready to go. There’s no more worrying about getting a calling card or using long-distance minutes that may have a great impact on your next phone bill when all you need is a cell phone and internet. Social media is the biggest thing involved with cell phone usage these days because so many people have found a lane of entrepreneurship with it.

Social media has allowed for people to showcase their unique skills and talents to the internet, but some understood the power that social media has then created a living from it. The term “influencer” is used on a daily basis because of what goes on social media, who’s being followed, what are they being followed for and how can they capitalize off of it. A well-known Instagram comedian by the name of “Terrell Davis” is from a small town in Detroit but is known by many of the biggest names in pop culture from Snoop Dogg to Jay Z “Click Here” because of how he presented himself on social media. He is now on a comedy tour around the Midwest showcasing some of his newest sketches and idea in front of a live audience, all because of a cell phone and an idea. The power of cell phones is evident, and the issue is to understand and/or predict where it goes from here. Will it be a detriment or an attribute when it’s all said and done?

Personally, I’m just hoping for the best because what I’m worried about is the way people are attaching themselves so greatly to these devices not realizing that they’re losing themselves and brain power in the process. There’s such a big difference in the good cell phones have done for one’s personal convenience and the bad it’s done for one’s self-esteem and confidence. People are becoming are more aware of cell phone usage and its impact on the world but what will people do when a shift happens with this technology? Will we retain the old skills we used to exercise before the era of technology implanted its way? Can people have the power to think back to their memory versus searching on Google? How much are people willing to give up in order to keep up with the newest devices?

This is all a lot to me seeing that we’re the generation that is tech savvy but really can’t see the long game that these corporations have in mind. We all want to make money but at what cost? Also, too often people are in some drama trying to impress others with their cell phone usage. People are trying left and right to be as outlandish as possible to go viral and nowadays it feels like people are trying to be acknowledged on an app more than being knowledgeable of life. The one of the toughest realities to be aware of is things will get worse before they get better, so now it’s a game of patience to see what happens next…

 

 

Sources Cited

“Cell Phones Are Changing Social Interaction.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-mishaps/201401/cell-phones-are-changing-social-interaction.

Gregersen, Erik. “Martin Cooper.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Cooper.

“History of Mobile Phones | What Was the First Mobile Phone?” USwitch Mobile Phone Deals, 21 Feb. 2019, www.uswitch.com/mobiles/guides/history-of-mobile-phones.

Kyle Media LLC. “Apple IPod (Original/Scroll Wheel) 5 GB, 10 GB Specs.” IPod (Original/Scroll Wheel) 5 GB, 10 GB Specs (IPod (Original), M8541, M8513LL/A*, 1910): EveryiPod.com, 15 Feb. 2019, everymac.com/systems/apple/ipod/specs/ipod.html.

Lusinski, Natalia. “12 Ways Your Smartphone Is Making Your Life Worse.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 7 June 2018, www.businessinsider.com/12-ways-your-smartphone-is-making-your-life-worse-2018-6.

1 comments

  1. Great work on this! It’s obvious that you learned a great deal about smartphones and why they are so successful. I was wondering if you looked at some of the negative aspects of them as well such as screen addiction, and limiting social interaction among peers and family members? I think it’s a problem but something that the technology companies admit to and they are working on ways to limit our addiction to these technologies whether we want them to or not.

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