Shakhboz Ahmatov(Tommy)
Soc 245
Professor: Olga Cornea
Research paper
Downside of Smartphones in Today’s Generation
Today, the world has reached unprecedented heights in technological advances. What is
now possible through the advances in technology was something people couldn’t even dream of
in the past. One of the examples of groundbreaking technological innovation of our generation is
smartphones. The inventions of the smartphones created ways for people to stay connected at all
times. Although the smartphones has made virtual communication very popular, the author’s
findings suggest that
“even the moderate levels of smartphone use we observed are sufficient to create feelings
of distraction that undermine the emotional rewards of social interaction… smartphone
use is associated with less positive social impressions, lower interaction quality with
friends and lower relationship satisfaction with a romantic partner” (Kushlev, web).
Before the invention of smartphones, people would more likely be communicating with others
around them to ask for directions or any other information which would then encourage them to
engage in face-to-face interaction. Now, people use smartphones to navigate to unfamiliar places
or find any information without having the need for human interaction. Despite bringing so much
convenience and comfort to people’s lives, the smartphones also caused a bigger social impact
on society by undermining face-to-face social interaction and a sense of social connectedness
people feel towards one another. Face-to– face interactions in society declined with the invention
of smartphones.
One of the greatest invention of 20th century was cell phones. This technology was
created to make wireless communication possible between people that are in different locations.
In 1973, Motorola started creating the first cell phone for public use. These phones were huge
and bulky but it was revolutionary for its time because this was the first handheld phone that was
created. Also, these phones were very expensive for an average person to own. However, as time
passed, the cell phones became accessible for common people to buy. The technology also
became more compact in size. Towards the end of 20th century, the first smartphone was
invented in 1992 by IBM and it was known as Simon Personal Communicator (Andrew, web).
The motivation behind the invention of Simon Personal Communicator was to send emails and
faxes along with combining a function of a cell phone (Heathman, web). Later on, the first flip
phone was invented and society became motivated to invent a phone that was more convenient,
portable, and more affordable. Quickly after, Nokia cell phone hit the market and they became
the bestselling phone(Rutnik, web).
