Week Seven: iPhones: How the Introduction of Smartphone Technology Has Impacted Our Society

Can you remember what life was like before you had a smartphone? How did you spend your free time? When you were bored, what did you do when you couldn’t pull up the entire internet with a few touches of a button? How has this invention changed your life, and where do you think you would be if the smartphone was never invented? The king of all smartphones, the iPhone, was first announced on June 29th, 2007, and the world was forever changed. While it wasn’t the first smartphone, the iPhone 1 ushered in the technology to the mainstream public. It had only 4GB of space, a single two-megapixel camera, and was 3.5 inches thick. Thirteen years of innovation and fifteen models later, the iPhone 11 can now hold up to 512GB of data, shoot video front and back with a twelve-megapixel camera, and is now 8.3mm thick, less than ⅓ of an inch. There are now over two million applications on the App Store. The iPhone has undoubtedly made an indelible impact on society. My question is: has it changed the world for better or for worse?

Of course, the iPhone, and smartphones in general, offer so many different advantages. All the information we could ever possibly need is right there in our pockets. Running late to work? Mapping apps like Waze can find the quickest route possible to your destination by avoiding traffic. Looking for a place to eat? Yelp will help you find the best spot for whatever you are in the mood for. Certain innovations even save lives. In the Health app on iPhone, you can put any information that may be necessary for an emergency, such as medical issues, medications, and blood type. So if you are having an allergic reaction, vital information can be easily accessed by first responders, without them having to unlock your phone. Life 360 allows you to see the location of anyone you connect with, as well as other safety information. My family mostly uses it to tell me to “SLOW DOWN!!” when they check my driving history. Phones allow rescuers to pinpoint exactly where to help during an emergency, connect people on opposite sides of the world, and bring ease to business life. They have allowed for better communication, easier sharing of information, and overall convenience for all of humanity. 

A recent study shows that around 80% of the population uses smartphones daily. Never before has the world been more connected. But what effect does all this phone usage have on our society? For me, my iPhone has become an addiction. What would I do without my phone for a day? I have friends who go crazy if they forget their phones outside of the bathroom. It is the first thing I grab in the morning and the last thing I look at before sleep. Endless scrolling on Twitter provides me with zero benefits, yet I do it so often because my brain craves the dopamine that a funny meme or update on LeBron James provides. My screen time application says that this week I have averaged three hours and five minutes on my phone a day, and I pick it up an average of 114 times daily. The average human spends three hours and 15 minutes a day on their phone. Imagine what you could do if you had three extra hours a day. What if instead of picking up your phone 114 times a day, you picked up a book 114 times instead? What could you do with all of this extra time, all of this extra knowledge? Now imagine if you multiplied these numbers out on a scale of years, decades. Multiply that number onto the rest of the 80% of the population. Based on this calculation, approximately 150 trillion man-hours are spent on the phone a year. Where would our race be with this much more time off our phone? Would we spend the time being productive, or would we find another way to waste time? What advances would have occurred? Would we already be mastering interstellar travel, or be in the same spot as we are now?

Obviously, these are very hypothetical examples. Smartphones have become so ingrained in our society, and there are far too many variables to account for, that it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how the world would be different without them. But the list of negatives they bring is alarming. Studies show that addiction to smartphones is very common. People are spending less time in the real world and more time on the little rectangle in our pockets. I have more friends with Nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, than without. Spending excessive time on the phone has been proven to have a negative impact on sleep, happiness, and health. Unfortunately, it seems that companies do not care about this. They specifically design their apps to act like a slot machine, psychologically designing it so we spend endless time on the phone. 

The current way we use smartphones is a detriment to society. The wasted hours, loss sleep, and reduction in happiness it has brought me outweighs any benefits I can think of. Unfortunately, I have found it hard to find a way to beat the addiction. Our society has moved toward making smartphones more mainstream by integrating it into daily life. While this means it is more convenient for those who have smartphones, it makes leaving them behind almost impossible. So how can you fight your addiction?

The first thing I would suggest is to track how much time you spend. The screen time app will allow you to see data on your phone usage, including how much time you were on the phone, how many times you picked it up, how many notifications you have on average, and which applications you use the most. You can set restrictions on how much time you can spend on the phone, and on specific apps. My next solution would be to not keep your phone in the room when you are trying to sleep. Charge it outside of the bedroom, and use a designated alarm clock to wake you up. Turn on Nightshift, which reduces the amount of blue light, the type of light that keeps us awake, your phone emits after a certain time. I would also say delete apps that are not essential. If you need your phone for work, only use your phone to make calls, check emails, and keep anything else that helps with business convenience. If you struggle with this, do what I call “Zero Dark Thirty” mode, an idea I copied from basketball star LeBron James. During the start of every NBA Playoffs, James will post a black picture with the caption “ZERO DARK THIRTY Activated” on all of his social media platforms, and go quiet online until the playoffs are over. James, who is known for stepping up his already ridiculous basketball production in the playoffs, has always been someone I look up to. When I am especially busy, I adopt his philosophy in order to cut out distractions. I delete all nonessential apps, like Instagram and Twitter, so that my phone is only used when absolutely necessary. I would recommend this to anyone who has trouble focusing. Other solutions would be to turn on Grayscale, making the phone much less interesting to look at, or turning off notifications except calls and texts. 

I am grateful for the invention of the iPhone. I do not believe the creators had malicious intentions when it was invented. But I believe our society has a problem with the way we use it. Overuse has led to widespread addiction, mental illness, and loss of patience. As humanity progresses, we will need to learn how to overcome phone addiction. I believe that those who recognize the problem early and actively take measures to reduce their time spent on the phone will be the most successful. I urge everyone to give the steps I outlined a try, and snap out of the spell of phone addiction before it's too late…

https://blog.rescuetime.com/screen-time-stats-2018/
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/6/21048116/tech-companies-time-well-spent-mobile-phone-usage-data