Technological advance has undoubtedly changed the world and the way we live in it. Can you think of a device without which you couldn’t live a single day? For a vast majority of people, the answer is pretty obvious.
It won’t be a mistake to claim that our mobile phones have become our masters. Whether you are at home, at work, at school, or on vacation, it’s barely impossible to imagine the situation where you will spend a day without holding a phone in your hands.
More and more applications for dating and acquaintances are appearing. More and more options and tools for video chatting embrace our communication needs. By contrast, the necessity for face-to-face interaction is becoming smaller and smaller.
So, are mobile phones our best friends or worst enemies? Let’s dive into the advantages and disadvantages of smartphones.
Advantages of Owning a Mobile Phone
A mobile phone is more than just a phone. It’s a multifunctional device that we use as a computer, a camera, an MP3 player, a timer, and even a game console. However, it is so much more than that! Let’s have a look at the advantages of mobile phones.
Round-the-Clock Connection with Relatives
You moved from the USA to Italy, and now you are far from your family and friends. What would you do without owning a smartphone? Now with social media, you can make voice calls, send text messages, share photos or videos, etc. Using such social media as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest, you can feel the effect of presence and always stay close to your dearest and nearest.
Life Saver
An essential benefit of your smartphone is that this handy device may save your life. For instance, you drive along an unknown motorway at night, and your car breaks down. Or you fall and hurt yourself while roaming around alone. You can always call emergency or other services fast, as well as send a text message to your family or friends, letting them know you need help. At some point, your cell phone may become your savior.
Business Promotion
Nowadays, every businessman embraces the benefits of using cell phones for accomplishing such marketing tactics as building relationships, advertising, engaging customers, etc. You can become a part of the field of marketing using only a smartphone. Magic, isn’t it? Entrepreneurs share their business info on numerous social networking websites and Messenger applications like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
Access to Education
As a smartphone user, you can gain new knowledge and information on multiple topics whenever and wherever you want. This is one more major advantage of mobile phones. With the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, most people have become acquainted with online classes, courses, educational programs, and even meetings. Nowadays, you can find any study material suitable for you in the form of images, photos, text, pdf, etc.
Entertainment
Mobile phones have replaced television as the top source of entertainment a long time ago. This handy and powerful tool offers such entertaining benefits as watching favorite movies and shows, offline or online gaming with friends, listening to music and podcasts, using various entertaining applications, reading, etc.
By the way, you don’t need to pay big money for the newest iPhone model to get entertaining benefits from your phone. Having multiple discounts on your hands, you can choose whichever phone you want without spending a fortune on it.
Source of Income
We live in a time when everyone can earn money via smartphone. Whether you are blogging, taking photos, making videos, selling items, creating videos for YouTube, or promoting your business, you can always make it profitable.
Disadvantages of Owning a Mobile Phone
Now let’s talk about some significant drawbacks of mobile phones that cause harmful effects on us humans.
Road Accidents
We would like to highlight one of the most detrimental effects of using mobile phones. These are road accidents. According to The National Safety Council report, cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year. Of course, we strongly advise not using a mobile phone while driving. Save your life. Save the lives of other people!
Health Issues
Though new smartphone models are less harmful than the old ones, they still may cause many health issues like insomnia, anxiety, hearing or vision problems, and various mental disorders. It is best to use a cell phone for a limited period of time or minimize its use.
Addiction and Distraction
While scrolling smartphones, you are automatically jumping into a virtual world. Phones absorb your focus, and you notice neither what’s going on in reality nor time flow. We’re sure you must have been in a situation when you had to study, work or clean the house, and you just picked up your phone and forgot about everything for some time. We would also like to add a waste of time issue to this point. A smartphone is a huge obstacle to living in the moment.
Security Issues
These issues are pretty common for phone users. Though iPhone IOS is a little bit more secure than android, for professional hackers, it’s quite easy to hack and access your mobile phone, your privacy, and data breach.
Due to security issues, people face such problems as loss of money, image, and respect. Some people even attempt suicide due to their privacy loss. These are really dangerous effects of using mobile phones.
Disconnection
It’s becoming harder and harder to disconnect from the online world. As for the real world, the situation is the opposite. So many cool applications for offline chatting are appearing that they have completely replaced live communication for many people. But what can be better than real emotions, eye contact, body movements, and the sense of someone’s presence? Though they promised to make us more connected, we are becoming more isolated.
Conclusion
Of course, there are way more benefits and drawbacks of using a mobile phone than listed in the article, but these are just a few to ponder.
To sum up, the device itself can become your best assistant as well as the worst enemy. Everything depends on how you use it. Stop scrolling your mobile phone for long hours, stop using it while driving, don’t distract yourself, and don’t lose focus and attention. Embrace reality!
