Smartphones are one of the mostcontroversial topics in the world today. While somepeople view smartphones as mankind’s greatest invention, I see it as one of themost annoying thing ever created. Therefore,I strongly disagree with Muhammad Sarwar’s article, “Impact of smartphoneson society” from the European Journal of Scientific Research, in which heclaims that the development of smartphones have improved our lives greatly.
While it is true that smartphones haverevolutionized communication, it is also hindering our lives. Smartphones have a negative effect on face to faceconversations, education, and driving ability. In Sarwar’s article, he pointed outthat smartphones provide a better means of communication.
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However, that’s not necessary true. Although smartphones allow you to connect withpeople all the over world, it can also disconnect you with those nearby. In today’ssociety, people tend to have fewer face to face conversations due todistracting apps such as Facebook and Twitter on their smartphones. In fact, some people check their phone all day long.
You see it everywhere, go outside and you’ll noticepeople with their faces glued on their smartphone. Ryan Dwyerof the University of British Columbia said, “Smartphones can lead todistraction, which ends up undermining the benefits of social interaction” (Dwyer1). By constantly using our smartphones,we are lessening social interaction.
Ratherthan enjoying conversations with others, we get easily distracted by emailmessages and social media. Thus, thisleads us to ignoring those nearby. Every timeyou are distracted by your phone; you are missing out on having an actualconversation with someone. As aresult of always using our smartphones to check Facebook, news, and emails, itseems like face to face conversations have become a thing of the past.
Even though Sarwar argues that smartphonescan be a very useful learning instrument, smartphones are also hurting academicperformance. In Impact of SmartphonesAddiction on Business students ‘Academic Performance: A Case Study, the author,Shamsul Arefin of the Uttara University, collected data from 43 studentsat Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), a business school from São Paulo, Brazil, hisanalysis yielded a significant negative relationship between total time spentusing smartphones and academic performance (Arefin 960). Clearly, it is fair to say that there is a hugecorrelation between smartphones and students’ academic performance. Many teens get easily distracted by theirsmartphones because it gives them an easy access to social media andentertainment. In class, students losefocus from the lessons to check news feed and play games. They may also stop listening to the class lecturewhen notification appears. Inaddition, teachers tend to have a difficult time keeping students engaged inclass, because students can simply play with their smartphone when they becomebored with the class material. Because learningrequires constant focus, it is fair to say that smartphones limit students’ability to learn due to its distracting features.
In addition, Sarwar argues that smartphonesincreases out safety. Forinstance, every time there is a crime such as kidnapping or murder nearby, ourphone will buzz in order to keep us informed and on the lookout. This is generally true, but he doesn’t take intoaccount that smartphones use greatly increases the risk of car accidents. There’s no denying that ever since the innovationof smartphones, car accidents have tremendously increased. Many drivers are tempted to use their smartphonebecause it allows them to not only browse the web, but also to read text andsend email. According to Sanaz Motamediand yh-Hone Wang of the University of Rhode Island, “sixty percent of driversread (but do not respond to) a text or e-mail while driving, and 25% of driversread and respond to a text or e-mail while driving” (Motamedi and Wang 325). In addition, because many Americans use theirsmartphone when driving, nearly 25% of all car crashes in the United States involvedcell phone distraction (Motamedi and Wang 325). Clearly, itis fair to say that there is a huge correlation between car accidents andsmartphones.
As a result, numerousamounts of lives are lost every year due to the development of smartphones. In conclusion Muhammad Sarwar thinks thedevelopment of smartphones have improved our lives greatly. Clearly, it does not because smartphones have anegative effect on face to face conversations, education, and driving ability. Therefore, smartphones are actually hinderingsociety rather than improving it.