How Has the Prevalence of Cell Phones Impacted Privacy of Adolescents in the U.S.
Abstract
Smartphones evolved significantly over the past decades, turning from a simple communication device into complex interactive mechanisms, which enables socializing through the internet, use of education and information services, cameras, voice recording and other tools, which previously were available only on separate devices. One of the major concerns with regards to the smartphone usage among adolescents, today, is a question on privacy and many people are concerned that the smartphones place teenagers in danger due to excessive exposure of their private life. The reality shows, however, that in the majority of cases, this exposure can be controlled by the users and the solution for the problem is not in avoiding the use of smartphones, but in the education of this public about the privacy regulations and rights. The benefits of smartphone use significantly overweigh the downsides, seen in the privacy violation. With that in mind, the risks of using the mobile technology are justified by the benefits.
Key words: Smartphone, privacy, advantage, negative and positive effect.
Introduction
Contemporary social and business environments are subject to fast-paced technological evolution, which affects lives, behaviors and even personality traits of individuals. With the introduction of the cell phone back in 1973, the entire humanity entered in a new stage of its evolution. Communication and interpersonal relationships became more intense, and the reliance on these devices brought numerous benefits to the society. The “wins”, which came with the introduction of the cell and later smartphones, however, came at a certain cost. Some of the major concerns, which are in the center of academic, business and social discussions, are the ethical issues, related to privacy issues.
In order to move to the specific discussion of the negative and positive sides of the smartphone usage, the report should first focus on the scope and scale of smartphone use and recognize the ways in which this device can affect privacy. Modern society no longer can classify the user by social, economic or other criteria as smartphones became an integral part of lives of the majority of people. The statistics for the United States alone demonstrate that in 2013 over 90% of the population uses cell phone, out of which 58% are smartphones. Moreover, the sales of smartphones in 2011 alone exceeded 490 million units globally (PEW, 2013; Lee 2013). When the cell phone was invented it had very clear and single use – make phone calls. The price and accessibility of this device were natural limitations for this market, and even so numerous debates started surrounding the use of cell phone from ethical, educational, cultural and other perspectives. Today, a smartphone is a mobile device, which provides individuals with various opportunities from phone calls to business management applications. Internet is easily accessible through the mobile phone, the communication process became much more multifaceted, offering classic voice, free-of-charge voice and video call applications, such as Skype, texting and other elements, which make the world of interpersonal communication much wider. The reality is that smartphone today can to some degree substitute computers and make life of individuals much more mobile. In spite of the conflict of interests in the debate about the use of smartphones in the educational environment, even this part of our lives involves mobile technology. Additionally, smartphones are equipped with photo and video cameras, which make its use even wider and enable instant exchange of the information, which previously was subject to weeks of expectations. Young people use their mobile phones to send files, print the documents, exchange messages, listen to the radio and even watch videos and read books. It is difficult to image an area of our lives, which is not yet somehow fit inside this small piece of technological advancement.
The progress and evolution of the smartphones are determined by the growing need of technological integration. Apple already today realized the potential of the market, which can be generated by making iPhones compatible with office applications and various systems, which can be used in the office and social environments (Michelman, 2007). These latest development even further exposes personal and professional lives of individuals and affect privacy. While 90% of the adults in the US use mobile devices, this number reaches almost 100% among younger generations and modern adolescents. Taking the example of the United States specifically, it is possible to argue that the Digital Natives generation is and will continue to grow into the “smartphone fever”. With the ´privacy considerations in mind, it is important to look at some fundamental questions, such as “to what degree are adolescents ready to give up their privacy and how the concept of privacy evolved over time?” The point that it is important to make here is that the social life of adolescents today is built around the social media websites, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, which are available on the mobile and widely used by young population in the United States. These websites make youngsters much more exposed, and the choice that they make is both deliberate and unconscious. The discussion around the impact of the smartphone on adolescent can be evaluated from various perspectives, including culture, social life, technology and other diverse aspects of the social environment and in each of these aspects one can see positive and negative aspects (Soomro, 2013). The thesis of this study, however, is that in spite of the numerous negative effects, which can be evidenced over the history of cell phone existence, the positive aspects outweigh the downsides.
The Impact of Smartphones of Adolescents
Social Environment
Looking at typical modern teenagers, it is possible to argue that they are victims of the smartphone culture. Everything, which concerns the social life of teenagers today, goes through the social websites, applications on the mobile phone, chats and other tools, which enable open communication and information exposure. Smartphone is not just a device, which gives convenience and access to the services; it is a lifestyle, which adolescents want to follow because it is “cool”, “stylish” and essential for their daily lives. According to the Family Online Safety Institute, the use of smartphone among US teenagers grew from 43% to 64% over the past two years (eMarketer, 2013). The fact remains the fact, if, for whatever reason, teenagers are not able to use smartphone, they will be falling out from his comfort zone and will be seen as odd-one-out. With that in mind, the decision to use a cell phone is no longer a question of “yes” or “no”, but the decision about the investment, which parents want to make in the mobile device of their child. Whether it is good or bad, right or wrong is another question and the contemporary social environment sets its rules, which often do not depend on us.
Negative Effects of Smartphone
Any benefit comes at a cost. The smartphone is one of the remarkable inventions of the twentieth century and the advancements of technology will continue making it more interesting and diverse. The cost of being able to use these devices from a social perspective is also reasonably high. To understand the impact of the phone, it is important to recognize that this device is just a tool, which links adolescents to the digital and virtual world. The downsides of this world are what generate the issues of privacy. With that in mind, there are several issues, which smartphone use creates in the privacy area.
First of all, smartphone is the mostly used gateway to all the social websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and others. These websites allow adolescents exchange the information, share data and discuss the happenings in each other lives. The reality is that we cannot fully control the type of information which is published about us on the websites by other people, and this exposes our privacy sometimes to a level, which is seen inconvenience by many adolescents.
Secondly, using the social media gives the websites and search engines the rights to expose some of our private data, such as location, personal information from the registration profile, number of the phone and other elements. This data can be used by the advertisement campaigns to send text messages, email and approach us, using other available communication tools. This exposure in the majority of cases is something that adolescents do not control either because they do not realize that there is a way to limit access to this data, or because they do not see the danger of such exposure. The social life of the individual is only as exposed as one would like it to be. Adolescents in the modern social environment are used to share information about their life much more than other generations. In other words, such applications as Foursquare expose not only personal data but instantaneously inform the users of these applications about the location and activities of the individual. The reason for this exposure is dual. First of all, at the moment of download, users have to allow this application to use certain personal data, such as track the location, use the email and other information. Often, refusing to give this data will mean that the application cannot be downloaded. Secondly, once we start using the application we expose ourselves to millions of other people, who can observe and use the information they receive in the ways they consider suitable. Additionally, information, which we share on the application, is generally protected by specific tools, which the developers incorporate in the background. These security measures, however, not always can protect the user from unintentional disclosure of data and hacker attacks. With regards to the Facebook, the issue of unintentional disclosure is even more significant as every post is personal and can give a lot of data to the users of the application, especially given quite strict Privacy agreement and information disclosure clauses of the contract with the website, which allows sharing the data and using location for personalized marketing. The flaws in information protection can be also seen through numerous cases of hacking the accounts on the Facebook. This visibility violates the privacy of individuals, but in the majority of cases it is the choice of the teenagers themselves.
There are many ways to control the information disclosure. From the website providers, unwanted information disclosure can be minimized by the cryptographic codes, incorporated in the websites, reinforcement of the information input security measures, such as password. From the side of the user, the choice of the information, which we allow being exposed to the social surroundings, can be controlled in various ways. Terms and conditions of the website use, which we click to agree, often without reading, explain in which ways the information can be used by the service provider. Understanding these elements of “virtual social life” can play tremendous role in the way we control the use of our private data. Secondly, settings and permissions of the smartphone and the social websites can enable strong information protection, such as type of people, who can see our postings, access to our smartphone built-in GPS data and other features. Finally, basic personal “filter”, which we apply to the information we post and make available in other ways to other people can become a limiting factor to the information disclosure. That said; it is important to remember that every picture we post, can be reposted or shared by other people other thousands of times, making our personal lives visible to people, who we never met before.
Positive Effects of Smartphone
While the negative effects of the mobile technology usage are widely discussed and criticized by the international community, one should not ignore the positive sides of the smartphone usage. Smartphones enable easy and fast access to a variety of data available through the internet, and this enables additional learning and helps adolescents react on the situations much faster. In many cases, this access allows solving some serious health issues, help connecting the teenagers with their relatives and even increases the quality time, which they can spend socializing face-to-face with their friends. This positive effect on socialization is the result of the time saved by teenagers on acquiring information for the education, organizing their agenda and communicating their plans in their social environment. In this case, privacy exposure is not an issue for the teenagers, but the benefit, which each of them gains by using the advancement of technology.
Family Environment
One of the biggest concerns of the parents is safety and security of their children. When it comes to the teenagers, their social exposure is very wide, and parents not always can control the ways in which their private life and information become public. This concern raises a lot of debates about the risks associated with the use of smartphones by adolescents and often blinds parents about the benefits of this device.
Negative Effects of Smartphone
One of the major downsides of the smartphone in view of family relationships is the fact that adolescents lose their privacy and can always be controlled by the parents, who have access to the call and message data, location and other aspects of the mobile device use. Additionally, smartphones can be potentially threatening to the privacy of the family data, as teenagers expose the information, which may jeopardize private data of the family. These negative effects, however, are low as the family can control the information, which it gives to the teenager and educate their children about the importance of privacy.
Positive Effects of Smartphone
On the positive side, smartphone enables easy and fast contact between the family members and offers GPS function, which allows parents tracing the location of their child at any point in time. This type of access and communication tool generates feeling of security and safety and makes parents feel more comfortable with giving certain level of independence to their child.
Educational Environment
As adults spend half of their week in the business environment, teenagers are exposed to the educational environment major part of their day. This environment more, than any other, affects their development and formation of the personality. The relationships, which students develop in their comfort zone in school, will to a great extent depend on their social and economic status, which limits or gives them the freedom for a particular lifestyle. That said; use of smartphones in education can have both, positive and negative effects.
Negative Effects of Smartphone
The contemporary environment is very demanding with regards to diversity and social and cultural aspects of one´s life. People learn to judge, and these judgments can be very radical among younger people. Mobile phone has become an accessory, which allows driving conclusion about the social status of the family from which the teenager comes. Soomro (2013) argues that students often have no other choice rather than being judged by the phone, laptop or clothes, which they use at school. As in the modern society even the families from low-income class have cell phone, this device became an important social class measure in the educational environment (Orgill & Hervey 2011).
Another aspect of privacy, which can be seen negative in the education, is the tutor-student relationships. The access to information, available to the students through the phone can often expose the information, kept by the teacher, in a manner, which can jeopardize the educational process. There are numerous examples, when students share the information between the classes and expose private data, utilizing the camera, voice recording and other functions on their smartphones. This type of exposure is difficult to control and even in the educational institutions, where the use of smartphones is prohibited at school premises, students find the ways to use these devices to affect the privacy of curriculum.
Positive Effects of Smartphone
The activities, in which teenagers are involved using the smartphone are vary varied, from game playing to book reading, and it is clear that the educational impact which this device has on the modern adolescents is tremendous. Digital education is essential for the teenagers, and it outlines the future trends of social and business landscape development in general. Positive impact of smartphones on education is significant as it widens the horizons of information acquisition, enables creative thinking and allows students practice some of the activities, which benefit their personal development, such as socializing, photography and creative writing.
Discussion
It is true that the smartphone has a sizable impact on the adolescents and their way of life. There are numerous positive and negative aspects, which can become the focus of discussion. Many people criticize the use of smartphones due to the fact that in many situations it violates the privacy. These concerns are relevant, especially, taking into consideration that teenagers often become addicted to the use of these devices and ignore the potential threats, which stand behind the information exposure. At the same time, the smartphone was developed to simplify the access to communication tools, information technology and other constructs of social living. The benefits, which this invention brought to the international community is difficult to measure, and it is evident that each social group benefits from it in its own way. For teenagers, the smartphone has three major advantages: ability to use a variety of the educational and developing applications, privacy element, which enables location of the teenager by through the GPS function in the phone and information exchange functions.
Privacy is a serious issue and the access to information technology makes the control of information and personal data more difficult. An analysis of the current situation, however, outlines that in the majority of cases the privacy issues, related to the use of the mobile phones are subject to the decision taken by individuals themselves. With that in mind, the risks and downsides of the personal data disclosure are limited and can be controlled through more accurate and conscious use of social websites, GPS and another mobile phone functions. At the same time, the advantages of the smartphones include access to educational, information services and a variety of other applications, which enable learning, socializing and personal development and benefit adolescents.
Conclusion
In many situations, people do not realize the consequences of their actions, and the use of smartphones exposes their private information and data. This exposure causes frustration and may place the users in danger. Taking into consideration that adolescents are some of the heaviest users of the smartphones, which exposes their personal lives to external environment, the frustration caused by unwanted information disclosure can be very strong. Social networks, information service application, GPS tracking and other tools are twofold. On one side, they can be seen as a threat to the teenagers, which excessively use mobile technology and expose their privacy. On the other, these features and many other educational and development applications allow faster and more efficient learning process, information acquisition and communication, which benefits adolescents.
With the above in mind, every advantage comes at certain cost and the cost of mobile technology, among others, is potential exposure of private information. As it can be seen from the analysis of the privacy issues, however, in the majority of the situations this threat can be controlled, and the level of exposure depends on the users. That said; the benefits of the mobile technology overweigh the downsides of the privacy issues and the risks can be leveraged by proper education of the adolescent about the threats of excessive use of social media or other information websites.
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