How Do Smartphones Affect Our Social Interaction?

Smartphones play a vital role in our daily social interactions. The importance of smartphones, in respect to our social lives, has been growing exponentially in the past decade. Long gone are the days that cellular devices were only capable of calling and sending or receiving text messages. In contrast with the past, cellular devices are now more capable than ever. Smartphones are now capable of instantly connecting the user to the web, social media, and capturing photos and videos. The aim of this research paper is to figure out exactly what forms of agency smart phones have in the interactions that was observed; as well as, how do they make a difference in these interactions? To begin with, I began my research by going into the field and observing people, unobtrusively, who were interacting with their smartphones. I observed people at Devonshire Mall for a duration of 40 minutes. I jotted everything that I noticed from small to …show more content…
There were many instances where I conducted research; however, I have never actually worked in the field. The number of people who were using their cellphones at the mall was shocking, it seemed that about 70% of the people that I looked at either had their cellphone on top of their table, in their hand, or were using it. The most frequent pattern that I noticed was walking and texting and the least frequent pattern was people using their cellphone’s while someone was talking to them. I did not observe anything that could counter the census amongst the researchers that the use of cellular devices could lead to a decline in social and psychological health of the user. The area is lacking in research and further research is needed. To conclude, I could do more research in this area to find out why there are so many negative effects of smartphone usage and how we could reverse those effects so that cellular devices have a more positive impact on our psychological and social