Phones Smarter than Us
We don 't tend to think of smartphones as revolutionary, even though over three-quarters of the world now has access to mobile networks (WorldBank, 2012). They 've caught on so quickly and have become such commonplace items that we as a society don 't really stop and analyze how incredible the technology is and how influential it is on our culture. We don 't think about what has been gained, nor about what has been lost. It 's just become a part of us. The development of the cell phone, especially the smartphone, is crucial to understanding technology and its effect on our culture. It is the epitome of personal computers and the most individualized form of technology we have to date, not to mention the most common. …show more content…
Because we are constantly connected, "we have evolved from a culture of instant gratification to one of constant gratification" (iGods, pg 65). If a page doesn 't load in a split second, we get frustrated with the wifi and begin to walk around looking for a better signal. If someone doesn 't text us back within a minute, we get anxious that we have angered them or that something has happened to them. If we 're in an area with no wifi or a bad cell signal, we have no idea what to do with ourselves. We no longer know how to be bored. Even going through a class period or a family dinner seems impossible without our mobile networks. Multitasking, or what appears to be multitasking, is commonplace. Our sense of time has become warped - there 's never enough time, because cell phones have made it possible to do so many things at once, we 're constantly thinking of more things that need to be done. However, the effects run deeper than just the widespread surface …show more content…
Because we can discuss anything with anyone from a distance, we often spend our time locked away, spending more time with our phones than in the presence of others. Ultimately, this idea of "social interaction [not taking place] over the backyard fence but, rather, in a physically remote location, acts as a barrier to the development of social capital" (Ling, pg 175). Social capital is the ties that connect the individual to society. Because we can pick and choose who we talk to at any given point, we no longer have to communicate with those who make up our local society. Smartphones have created a scenario in which our personal society consists of people scattered far and wide, people who we may rarely see outside of the digital realm. As any communications textbook can tell you, face to face communications, identifying with a community, and physical touch are all a vital part of what creates our sense of self. Losing these ties to our physical communities can be detrimental to us as individuals. We 're connected, but we 're not really
We don 't tend to think of smartphones as revolutionary, even though over three-quarters of the world now has access to mobile networks (WorldBank, 2012). They 've caught on so quickly and have become such commonplace items that we as a society don 't really stop and analyze how incredible the technology is and how influential it is on our culture. We don 't think about what has been gained, nor about what has been lost. It 's just become a part of us. The development of the cell phone, especially the smartphone, is crucial to understanding technology and its effect on our culture. It is the epitome of personal computers and the most individualized form of technology we have to date, not to mention the most common. …show more content…
Because we are constantly connected, "we have evolved from a culture of instant gratification to one of constant gratification" (iGods, pg 65). If a page doesn 't load in a split second, we get frustrated with the wifi and begin to walk around looking for a better signal. If someone doesn 't text us back within a minute, we get anxious that we have angered them or that something has happened to them. If we 're in an area with no wifi or a bad cell signal, we have no idea what to do with ourselves. We no longer know how to be bored. Even going through a class period or a family dinner seems impossible without our mobile networks. Multitasking, or what appears to be multitasking, is commonplace. Our sense of time has become warped - there 's never enough time, because cell phones have made it possible to do so many things at once, we 're constantly thinking of more things that need to be done. However, the effects run deeper than just the widespread surface …show more content…
Because we can discuss anything with anyone from a distance, we often spend our time locked away, spending more time with our phones than in the presence of others. Ultimately, this idea of "social interaction [not taking place] over the backyard fence but, rather, in a physically remote location, acts as a barrier to the development of social capital" (Ling, pg 175). Social capital is the ties that connect the individual to society. Because we can pick and choose who we talk to at any given point, we no longer have to communicate with those who make up our local society. Smartphones have created a scenario in which our personal society consists of people scattered far and wide, people who we may rarely see outside of the digital realm. As any communications textbook can tell you, face to face communications, identifying with a community, and physical touch are all a vital part of what creates our sense of self. Losing these ties to our physical communities can be detrimental to us as individuals. We 're connected, but we 're not really