Now a day smartphone has become an integral part of our life. It has mixed up within us in our lifestyle in such a way that we are feeling that we cannot live life without it.
It’s become more like a necessity and now converting into an addiction.
First, let’s understand the origination and purpose of mobile phone
The mobile phone was created to connect one person to another person located at a different location by voice call across the globe without wire. People were using mobile for very limited uses which were restricted to important talks and communications only. As the call charges for both caller and receiver were on the higher side so people use to use it judicially.
How slowly mobile phone has entered in our life
In the year 1994-95 when very few companies were providing mobile phones like Ericsson which was very expensive those days and also the call charges use to be around Rs 32 per minute for both caller and receiver. Keeping mobile phones was not a cup of tea, especially for middle class people and below class people. Only the rich class people could afford it.
Later Nokia introduced affordable mobile phones which created a revolution in the market and it was affordable to middle class people also. As the volume of users became higher, the telecom company had reduced the call rates drastically.
The cost of mobile equipment was still high so very limited people were buying mobiles. After globalization, many companies were there in the market especially Chinese companies. After the introduction of cheap Chinese phones, now handsets were available to all segments of people including people who were below the poverty line.
Mass demand for mobile phones had created heavy demand for mobile network resulting networks providers also started providing services at dirt cheap rates.
Even at this point in time mobile was harmful?
No, even at this point in time the mobile phone was not harmful. During the course of time, technology revolution happed and due to which mobile phone become smarter loaded with lot of other features.
After the internet revolution, Smartphone which was loaded with so many features came to light and the uses of Smartphone had started rising. Google had introduced their browser which becomes popular across the globe. People were using the internet to gather information and emails to connect with people across the globe. Even at this point in time the mobile smartphone was not harmful.
When dose it start harming our life?
After the introduction of popular entertainment, gaming and social media platforms like Orkut, Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok, Whatsapp, Instagram, etc. Smartphone becomes blue eyed boy for everyone. Now people started interacting with all these platforms and they also started getting entertained, engaging most of their time watching smartphones. The internet browsers and Apps are loaded with full of content and new contents are adding every second which creates curiosity to watch more and all the classes & group of people are now using for longer duration.
How it is harming us?
To watch more you need time and people start creating time for watching it like while travelling, while eating, while working, by doing day to day work, people are using it and slowly becoming addictive to it.
Even kids are also getting affected by watching Smartphone by using of Youtube, gaming apps, puzzles and much more content available over the internet including educational. Their study hours have been reduced drastically and Smartphone using hours increased drastically which is harming their way of life including their health.
These all are destroying our life.
But Is Mobile phone destroying our life?
Most of the people are blaming Smartphones for that and trying to reduce watching hours or snatching phones from kid’s hands so they can protect themselves and their kids too.
But is this the right way to resolve the problem or some other reasons are responsible for all these?
To understand it well, we have to go back to the era when the mobile phone was not there and how our society get entertained? How did we use to interact with people? How did we use to engage our time? How did we use to gain knowledge? How did we use to do shopping? How did we use to book a taxi? and many more such things which now we are doing by smartphone.
These are all things we were doing when the mobile phone was not invented.
How life was, when mobile was not in our life?
In the olden days, our lifestyle was very different. We used to physically interact with the society people; we used to welcome, sit together, give education, sharing our experiences, resolving problems, helping each other, participating in their social & cultural events & celebrations, celebrating festivals together, stand with people in bad & their worst time, etc.. These were more like real social activities that were developing our personality as well were used to really experience things on real ground.
Then what was missing in the olden days and what we got from internet technology?
Doing all these physical social activities our knowledge and exposure were very limited.
The Internet world has broken all the barriers and connected people across the globe. Now connecting with people, knowledge sharing, experience sharing, getting the answer for all our curiosities, solving problems, earning money, doing business, exploring ideas and many more such things are available sitting at your home in even a small village becomes very easy.
Also, banking system, shopping apps, Travel apps, payment facilitation, Google map, etc have created ease in life and now without getting out of the home, we can do many things sitting in one place even in remote areas too.
These internet revolutions have changed the entire way of lifestyle and now due to this people are skipping from real experiences and becoming more and more isolated from real society.
The behavior has also started changing. The people who were celebrating their success with their dear ones together by float a small snack party now start congratulating over a chat and sending just a sign of smiley & flower bouquet. Even in the event of death people are skipping to participate in the sad time of their dear ones by just sending RIP with flower pictures by their Smartphone.
Physical interaction has been decreasing day by day and in this whole process we are gaining so much knowledge but if we are deprived of so many real experiences in life by which we can become more mentally strong.
The new generation is exploring more and more ideas and gaining more knowledge but in an event of failure, they depress quickly as they have an invisible social circle that works in a very limited way. Now people are missing a personal touch.
The world we are watching on Smartphone looks larger than life and we get fantasized and influenced quickly and start running behind so many things. But the real world is very different from this world which we are watching by Smartphone. That keeps people in the dream world.
Many times, due to non-fulfillment of these dreams people are adopting the dangerous ways of life like consuming alcohol, consuming drugs, committing suicide etc.
So it is very important that we must properly well connect with the real world not the reel world. This will help people to get away from isolation.
What are the main reasons behind isolation? What we are doing?
1. In the olden days, we were experiencing our life physically and now we are experiencing our life on Smartphones. We do not want to take pain to leave our seats, just want to do the thing sitting in one place.
2. In the olden days, people were explorer and were exploring places physically may be a few places. Now we are more fantasized watching travel videos and travel experiences. In realty, we do not want to take pain to explore the world. We are very much happy to “Like” other’s travel experiences on social media. Even many people are traveling the places and putting pictures on social media to get more n more “Likes” and “Comments”. Even though their travel experience is normal or not that good but by putting HD filtered images they are getting more “Likes” on social media platforms which makes their travel experience extraordinary in the imaginary world.
3. In the olden days people use to meet physically with friends & society people only after their working hours and through physical meeting, experience sharing, debate on the subject, cracking jokes and many such things were keeping liveliness in their and other’s life. Now people are interacting the whole day but in piecemeal with each other through Whatsapp or any such platform and they are getting more typing experience, how to write the impressive language, etc. but not emotional cohesiveness.
4. In the olden days your guest comes to meet you without intimation and many times in front of them you were arranging your home to sit them comfortably, welcoming them with tea and homemade snacks and giving them real respect and guest gesture was a pleasure for you & guest too.
Nowadays most of the interactions we are doing by chat on Smartphone. If we are buying or adding anything in life we are posting just to enhance our impression in society. If someone is coming to our home we are arranging everything to impress them to the best possible extent and we avoid serving tea n snacks as the cost of the food becomes expensive. And if we are willing to serve then also we do not want to take the pain to make something for them, just serving premade beverages and packed food. In this whole thing, emotional cohesiveness is completely missing.
5. In the olden days kids use to go out every day during their playtime and experience many activities like bicycling, playing with the sand, chatting with friends physically, knowledge sharing, playing games, running, sports activities etc. are keep them more open to life and keeps physically fit.
Nowadays parents do not have time to take their kids out daily as they are busy with household work, chatting on Smartphone and making a position in society by collecting more n more materialistic things. Kids are more diverting towards online Smartphone activities as they are not allowed to go regularly out or engaged in any constructive activities. Slowly they become addicted to the internet and mobile phone.
6. In the olden days shopping experience was giving many things in life like a real shopping experience, you could feel the product, could dealt with the people, could learnt time management, could gain real experience of life, travel to shopping places, knowledge of right cost/price, knowledge of the market, etc. While purchasing people were interacting with the shopkeepers and people know each other by name. Even many people were known their shopkeepers and vendors closely and helped them in any bad times.
Nowadays, in this supermarket and shopping app culture, people are doing shopping sitting at home and missing the experience of life which will help to gain knowledge of products, rates and physical shopping experience and interaction with people of society.
7. In the olden days people were more disciplined and they were doing their daily routine work on time and also able to spare time for them to relax and interact with society. Now people have no self discipline in life and after completing all the routine activities they just spent time with Smartphones and forget all the time discipline of life.
8. In the olden days life partners use to spend time together watching movies or programs on TV. Now they become separate from their Smartphone and watch entertainment programs of individual choice separately on their Smartphone. Again it is impacting cohesiveness between them.
9. In the olden days kids use to enjoy traveling with their parents and watching the real world and experiencing life. They were learning so many things by watching how their elders are dealing with the people. Nowadays kids are watching Smartphones while travelling and are not interested to watch the real world. They just became addicted to Smartphones.
10. In the olden days people use to go to invite their relatives to their marriage functions, birthday parties and celebrations. This personal invitation, people were taking as respect and feeling overwhelmed which were giving exposure to them and their kids too. Nowadays people are just sending a smartly designed picture of an invitation by Smartphone. The respect and emotional touch are now completely missing.
11. In the olden days relatives were frequently visiting our homes and kids use to mingle and engage with them and they were experiencing the real meaning of attachment & relationships which teach them to respect elders and learn to listen to the experience of their elders. These experiences were giving real education for life and in critical situations, they were using those experiences their whole life.
Nowadays kids are so much connected with society by Smartphones that they don’t want to meet physically with their relatives and due to this, kid’s behavior is more become isolated and to mitigate this isolation they are diverting more towards other uses of Smartphone. The kid generation is becoming more and more isolated and their listening and learning power from elders is reducing day by day.
This all shows that physical engagement is very necessary to live life otherwise we and our kids will become isolated.
Many other factors are also responsible for like the nuclear family concept, different job locations, husband wife both working, running to collect comforts, focus to make position in society and in addition to this, now mobile is separating our new generation from experiences of the real world and society.
This technological time is like a boon to all of us which help us to live life with ease but we should use it to such an extent that it should not make us isolated and should not cut off us from physical experiences of life.
If we keep all the above mentioned points in mind and take all necessary steps to make our life an experience then life will be good with Smartphones and will not harm us. Use the Smartphone as a tool to grow our knowledge, personality, intelligence, exposure with the world, etc. and if we are using it for entertainment then use it in time bound manner. This all will happen when we will mingle with the more with real world not the reel world.
