Effects of Cell Phones and Social Media Addiction on Society

Cell phone use and technology in general have impacted our modern society in different areas such as business and finance, utility, creativity, education, and social relations. Particularly, the introduction of smartphones integrated services such as communication (voice and message), entertainment, wireless communication capability, and personal information management. All of these factors have impacted almost every aspect of society, whereby it has changed our unique behaviors and cultural patterns in both positive and negative ways. In business, education and social relations, cell phones have remained to be key factors that make communications easier. The use of smartphones has increased in the market reach for business through communication. It has also played a key role in developing new trending behaviors through social media platforms. According to Siddiqui and Singh (2016), 96% of Americans own and use a cell phone. 81% of the American population owed a smartphone by 2011. About 65% of college students use a smartphone whereby 70% of the users are addicted to their cell phones. Cell phones and social media addiction mean that the use is psychological and physically unable to stop using their devices.

Business and Finance

In the last two decades, cell phone has increased which caused a great impact on business and finance. This is particularly due to the fact that cellphone use brought about a better method of communication, and has allowed entrepreneurs and business managers to access more markets, obtain great ideas for business and so on. Different applications better known as simply “apps” have been developed to allow businesses to access and communicate with their customers more conveniently. This has been made possible by the fact that smartphones can access internet services and other related sectors which have created a global community. The fact that cell phones have become an essential part social daily life has also had a great impact on our places of work in the overall business environment. Some workplaces have a BYOD policy where it benefits the employees and the employers. Where the employees gain the freedom to work on the go with own devices meanwhile the employers get to save by not having to invest in extra hardware for work performance. Human Resource and business management also benefit through the use of smartphones by being able to hold business meetings with global and domestic co-workers or partners.

Features in the cell phone including advanced calculators, large data storage capacity (possibly through sim card or cloud storage), the internet along with other apps enable business to keep better records and save data on the go. They can keep track of their staff and progress at lower operation costs and make quick sales with products like the Square. The fact that many businesses allow their employees to carry their cell phones and other personal devices makes the business operations more convenient because it ensures fast communication as well as on demand response to issues that arise. Cell phones are also becoming vital components of payments and banking through various applications and money management companies such as the widely used Paypal and ApplyPay along with some other companies. The ability to transfer money and cash checks through cell phones has increased the payment processing capacity in the market. Long are the days that you have to wait for your friend to pay you back for dinner, when they can now instantly transfer the money simply by having your mobile number. Major companies such as Amazon and Ebay have created apps so that customers can access information regarding the company’s products or the seller reviews and order from them. Moreover, business marketing and other promotional activities are much easier today because of cell phones. The use of cell phones has therefore increased business profitability.

Education and Creativity

Cell phone use in school by educators and students has positive impacts. Smartphones’ ability to quickly access information with and without the help of voice assistants such as Siri has helped many students with their studies. Creativity is also enhanced when people can access information regarding their particular fields just by having sources such as Google at their fingertips. Cell phones have been utilized by professors to deliver educational services and distant learning through the internet. Other benefits of cell phones to scholars includes the fact that the devices can be used to keep them on-time and organized. This may involve using alarm reminders and calendar alerts to keep them on track with their activities and be punctual for classes and assignments. Various apps and tools in modern cell phones have proven effective in classrooms. This is particularly because students can access important information regarding their field of study. Access to information is an important factor to research, development, and creativity and with a cell phone you can have that in the palm of your hand.

Entertainment

Today’s cell phone allows us to access music, movies, videos, and games wherever we go. The devices are portable resulting in positively revolutionizing the entertainment industry. Despite how popular they were, cell phones have now replaced portable MP3 players. People can search, stream and download their tunes on the go. Also, using the smartphone one can now take amazing professional quality photo with the comparable cameras that they now install. So let alone being able to watch a movie on your phone, you now have the capability to make, edit and share them with these amazing cell phone cameras. On average the American citizens spent three hours and 35 minutes a day on their smartphones in 2018 as compared to three hours and 44 minutes on television. According to Marler (2018), we might soon start spending 80% of our time on smartphones especially on entertainment. Cell phone companies including the iPhone, Samsung, Motorola, and other contain big storage capacities and audio and video player applications that can store hundreds of songs and videos. Moreover, many can access the internet and have continued to improve their operations to accommodate video games. This makes the smartphone the future of entertainment.

Social Relations

The use of cell phones has greatly impacted how we communicate and interact with one another including family and loved ones. Cell phones have improved the frequencies of our communication because we talk to people from long distances and feel a connection. The devices have also improved how we communicate with our elderly and people with special needs. However, cell phones has also had a negative impact because people do not meet up in person as much due to this digital form of communication. Effective communication involves one-to-one communication with family members, friends, and others because it creates an empathetic connection where we can study each other’s facial expressions and body movements which are essential components of communication. The cell phone have affected people’s ability to have healthy, stable relationships because it has affected our ability to hold regular face-to-face communications with one another (Kardos et al. 2018). Therefore, while cell phones have improved communication between people, it has also distracted people from seeing each other in person.

Conclusion

Cell phone usage has impacted a great deal of everyday society. These areas include business and finance, education and creativity, and social life. Human interaction use of cell phones has changes individual behaviors and cultural norms in both positive and negative ways. The use of cell phones have changed our lives because we can access more information, order goods and services, interact with others and access entertainment. Businesses and financial markets has been able to grow and expand as a result of using cell phones. The negative side of cell phones include the fact that devices has taken us away from in person interaction, but overall has given us so much to be thankful for as being such an essential piece of technology.

References

1. Kardos, P., Unoka, Z., Pleh, C., & Soltesz, P. (2018). Your mobile indeed means your social network: Priming mobile phone activates relationship concepts. Computers in Human Behavior, 88, 84-88
2. Marler, W. (2018). Mobile phones and inequality: Findings, trends, and future diections. New Media & Society, 20(9), 3498-3520.
3. Siddiqui, S., & Singh, T. (2016). Social media its impact with positive and negative aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 5(2), 71-75.