Smartphone: USEFUL or MISUSED?

Since the existence of smartphones, the concept of the internet and the whole world, all in
the palm of your hands has finally come true. As they have become more high-tech, however,
most of its users have become more insolent and impolite. It has become a necessity to the point
where it becomes too addicting. The use of smartphones has skyrocketed so much that even
some people who are sitting beside each other would text instead of talking to each other.
While mobile phones might save your life, but they can also destroy it. There are so many
beneficial applications for a smart phone such as Google Maps, contacting your family, or even
playing a game to pass the time. However, there are far too many drawbacks to smartphones in
comparison to their benefits when you're addicted. Study shows that around 10-20% of
individuals reported distress or impairment due to their smartphone addiction. You could become
so hooked that you won’t even know how much time you’ve wasted scrolling through social
media.
Back in the day, families would acquire their children a mobile phone to simply contact
them as it's always a good idea to know where your child is. But as time passes by, the use of
smart phones for parents and kids have drastically changed. Nowadays, parents and kids would
use their smartphones for communicating with their friends and various studies have shown us
that 72% of teens and 48% of parents admit to checking their phones at an hourly basis for social
networking. As of a result, many families won’t feel all together. This can result in parents and
their children having poor communication.
People are now overusing it and, in some circumstances, using it in a rude and an
inappropriate manner. There are several examples of this such as students distracted with their
smartphones during online classes, people who need to open their phones every five minutes
while watching a film in the theatre, or even millennials that are involved in many car accidents
due to texting while driving. In the United States alone, 1 of every 4 car accidents happened due
to texting while driving. Studies also showed that smartphone distractions prove to have negative
effects on an individual’s psychological well-being.
Based on the previous arguments, it has clearly shown that smartphones have several bad
impacts from distress to visual impairment, poor communication to negative effects on our well-
being. However, one must not simply disregard the usefulness of smartphones based on these
factors, but rather focus on the positive factors. As simple as navigating your way through
Google Maps, contacting your families during the pandemic, or even playing a game with our
friends, these are some of the positive benefits. Therefore, smartphones can help us throughout
our daily lives, but we must remember to be self-aware of our time usage.