Impact of Smartphones in the Society
Introduction
Smartphones are a type of mobile phones that have many advanced features as compared to other mobile phones. These features include wireless networks, voice communication, and play videos, built-in camera, ability to receive and send an email and play games. Smartphones were originally designed to target the business class of people but over years, they have gained popularity among people from all walks of lives. They have both positive and negative impacts on the society as a whole. These impacts are not only to the users but also to the non-users in a direct or indirect manner.
Summary/Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate and find out the impact of smartphones in the society today. The research method includes filling questioners and interviewing by target groups such as the youth and the working class. It also included finding information from secondary sources such as journals, books, and articles. The study found out that smartphones have largely eased business communication and the entire communication process. Smartphones have also affected negatively social life by decreasing human contact.
The audience of this study is the lecturer. The audience to collect data from is the youth and the working class age group. The youth majorly those that are in colleges and universities. The working class are those that are in business, health sectors, mental organizations, and educational institutions.
Purpose of the report
The purpose and aim of the report is to look at how widely smartphones are used in the current society. The report focuses on how this wide usage has influenced the society. It outlines both the negative and the positive impacts of smartphones and in brief how to eliminate or minimize those negative impacts.
Methodology
Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect information from study participants. Journal, books, and articles were the main sources of secondary data.
Description of Primary Research
The primary research entailed interviews and questionnaires. The interviews were random and included questions such as how smartphones have affected an individual on a personal basis, and whether the impact is greater on the positive or negative side. The interviews targeted the working class and four persons were interviewed. The questionnaires were again given at random to students in colleges. All the information was collected, analyzed, and relevant conclusions were made.
Description of Secondary Research
Secondary research involved studying written materials. The material included books, journals, and articles discussing the impacts of the smartphones in the society. The work was organized and research findings collected, analyzed, and appropriate conclusions were made.
Collected Data, Section 1
Business
A businessperson outlined that work has been made easier on their side. Communication through email has eased their work. Selling and buying are done via phone. Online advertising and online markets have made the transaction process easier (John, 2013).
Health
In health organization, the interviewee said that handling patients have become easier, especially for private patients. Issuing prescriptions have also been made much easier via the smartphones. Managing the records is now very easy.
Psychology
According to a psychologist, smartphones have in a great way reduced stress in people's lives. The games and videos are ways of relaxing the mind be it in the work place or at home. On the other hand, smartphones lead to addiction that encroaches into an individual's social life.
Education
Collected Data, Section 2
Data collected from the secondary materials revealed that the use of smartphones has increased over years (Sarwar & Soomro, 2013). As shown in Figure 1 in the appendix.
Business
Smartphones have reduced the necessity of owning personal computers. The increase in the use of smartphones have increased the sales of smartphone manufacturers and decreased sales for personal computers manufactures thus decreasing their profits (Bowen & Ozuem, 2016).
Education
In schools, smartphones have made handling assignments for students much easier. They can easily research their work on the internet, discuss via texts and video chats. Smartphones have also affected negatively learning institutions since they encourage cheating (Fan, 2012). Cheating in an exam room is easier when a student has a smartphone since they can text or search answers via the internet (Lu, 2012). Bullying has become common through video recording and sharing as shown in Figure 2 in the appendix.
Families
In families, communication has been made easy through smartphones. On the other hand, it has affected families in a more negative manner. Families no longer spend much time together and share together since attention has been shifted to smartphones (Zaphiris et al., 2015). What results is a lack of bonding in the family that results to misunderstanding in the family as shown in Figure 3 in the appendix.
Social life
In social life, smartphones have a negative effect. Smartphones have reduced the physical interaction among individuals. People prefer to interact via text. Something special is held in human interaction. An individual feels more understood and more bonded to another (Phillips, 2015). Smartphones have stripped the society of this. Individuals feel more bonded to those that are far way and do not mind about their immediate neighbors as illustrated in Figure 4 in the appendix.
Health
Patients access health information easily via smartphones. Individuals can easily find health information and health facilities via the smartphones. Health physicians can easily communicate with patients, prescribe medication, and monitor hospitalized patients as illustrated in Figure 5 in the appendix.
Conclusion
In conclusion, smartphones have greatly impacted in the society. They have many advantages. They ease the communication process, they make selling and buying easy for businessmen, they help management of health work easy for the patients and health physicians, and they make schoolwork easy for students. They also have negative effects, creating a stigma in students through bullying, cheating in exams and eliminating the advantages that come with physical interaction among members of the society.
Summary of findings
The findings were that smartphones help people from all works of line to run their activities smoothly. This includes patients, students, and businesspersons. The area that is mostly affected negatively by smartphones is social life among individuals and families
Overall Interpretation of Findings
Smartphones are important to individuals. Their effectiveness and usefulness can easily be noted at a first glance, but their negative impacts come with time and take time to notice.
Recommendations
Smartphones have a great positive impact in people's lives, and most people should embrace their use. People should limit their use of smartphones to avoid creating an addiction that is hard to overcome. Again, people should create time for families and friends to improve their social life.
References
Sarwar M. & Soomro T. (2013). Impact of Smartphone’s on Society. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236669025_Impact_of_Smartphone's_on_Society
Phillips C. (2015). How Smartphones Revolutionized Society in Less than a Decade. Chattanooga Times (TNS). Retrieved from: http://www.govtech.com/products/How-Smartphones-Revolutionized-Society-in-Less-than-a-Decade.html
John J. (2013). Impact of Smartphones on the Society. Trff Media. Retrieved from: http://www.trffcmedia.com/topics/impact-of-smartphones-on-the-society/
Frith, J. (2015). Smartphones as locative media. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity.
Role for smartphones and social media in medicine safety. (2014). The Pharmaceutical Journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.1211/pj.2014.20066370
Learning With Smartphones. (2015). Word Of Mouth, 27(3), 14-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1048395015616379e
Fan, Y. (2012). Smartphone-based travel experience sampling and behavior intervention among young adults. Minneapolis, Minn.: Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota.
Perlow, L. A. (2012). Sleeping with your smartphone: How to break the 24/7 habit and change the way you work. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Review Press.
Zaphiris, P., Ioannou, A., & International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. (2015). Learning and collaboration technologies: Second international conference, LCT 2015, held as part of HCI International 2015, Los Angeles, CA, USA, August 2-7, 2015, proceedings.
Kratzer, P., Gruber, C., Clementi, A., Lahee, D., Rödlach, P., & Stelzhammer, P. (2014). Mobile Security Products for Android: Security for the Android Platform. Norderstedt: Books on Demand.
Lu, Z. (2012). Learning with mobile technologies, handheld devices, and smart phones: Innovative methods. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Bowen, G., & Ozuem, W. (2016). Competitive social media marketing strategies. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.
Appendices
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
