Today’s generation of cellphones can be summed up into three words: thinner, faster and smarter.
Gone are those days when people only use cellphone as a medium in reaching their friends and love ones through text messaging and phone calls. Now cellphone has taken its greater heights that allowed people to live life in ease and convenience. Today, people do not necessarily need a laptop for them to tweet their friends, DSLR cameras to capture very special moments and gigantic dictionaries to search for a definition of a word. Thanks to technology, this handy gadget is now capable of doing all these things.
From just a simple call-and-text device, features such as high definition cameras, wifi and OS (operating system) such as androids are now integrated in it. From its usual screen-keypad anatomy, new generations of cellphones now called smartphones allows people to browse into its sleek interface right through its screen. With a gentle swipe and touch, the use of cellphones has now become easier and better. According to OMG Yahoo Philippines, “Samsung has overtaken Nokia as the top mobile phone brand for 2012 and has opened up a decisive lead over Apple in the smartphone market”.
Undeniably, cellphones has made our everyday lives easy and convenient. According to the report by Pew Research Center, as of 2012 fully 85% of American adults own a cell phone and now use the devices to do much more than make phone calls. Photo taking, texting, and accessing the internet are the most popular activities people pursue with their mobile phones.
Aside from being a medium of communication, it enables us to access information via the internet. Education may now come in just a snap. Furthermore, access to social networking sites can now come in handy. It allows us connect with friends and love ones even without a laptop. Moreover, cellphones are now capable of reading pdf files that is of great advantage to students.
In addition, people can spend less of their money because cellphones nowadays are capable of reading Mp3 format files to play music and capture photos with its build-in camera. They do not have to purchase digital camera and Mp3 players at the same time to cater their needs. With the new applications, available online, publishing photos on the internet are now made possible via Instagram that allows you to enhance the photos that you capture before sharing it to the rest of the world.
“I can’t really live my everyday life with a cellphone that is only limited to calls and texts. I need a smartphone to check my investments, PDF files, word files, NBA scores and news. I make sure that the smartphone has a decent MP3 player and is able to run demanding apps to kill the time. A decent camera is also a factor to be able to capture precious moments and assignments written on the board. It is also important for me that the smartphone that I consider buying is future-proof and elegant as well.It has definitely made my everyday life convenient and practical as well,” Louis Avenir, third year AB Economics said.
However, it lessens personal communication with their friends and love ones. Since people nowadays are just a few texts away, all they ever do is just text someone they like to talk. Personal bonding is now gone. For example, while waiting for food in a restaurant, people choose to log on to their facebook or twitter account, tweet about what they are doing or what they feel, and scroll previous tweets instead of talking with their family members and share moments with them.
It may sound to be an advantage since it will help us save paper and save from writing lengthy notes. However, students nowadays are now very dependent on cellphones and no longer take down notes, which promote indolence. They no longer listen to lectures because they can just take a photo of what is written on the board. As a result, the lessons do not sink in into their mind that affects their performance in class.
Innovations introduced by technology have been very overwhelming. It provided us with so much convenience and helped us in all aspects of our life. Imagine how a handy gadget such cellphone has offered us a leeway to access information, connect with our friends and love ones and document the highlights of our lives. However, too much dependence to it results to a major drawback. At the end of the day, we always go back to the saying “to take things in moderation.”