Mobile Phones: Boon or Curse?

We all live in a world where everything is right at our fingertips, all thanks to the
little rectangle-shaped screen that fits in our pockets. Do you need to talk to
someone on the opposite corner of the world? Need a hamburger for you and your
friends? Or do you want to chill out by watching an episode of Friends? All of these
and more are right there, waiting for a single tap of your finger. But a mobile phone
isn't something that fell straight out of heaven, right? We humans created these tiny
devices, and it's obvious that the apple didn't really fall far from the tree; just like its
maker, a mobile phone walks the thin line between good and bad. Let’s further dive
deep in to these contrasting facets of mobile phones.

On the bright side, mobile phones make us almost godlike. People from 100 years
ago would have mistaken the mobile phones we use today for some sort of genie. Just
look at it; you can see and talk to someone on a different continent in real-time, you
can learn about anything or anyone just by typing a query into Sundar Pichai's little
pet called Google, you can send money through nothing physical, call for a taxi or
auto, and more. I bet the people back then would have burned you at the stake for
doing something like that. It's very obvious that mobile phones have made things
better for us. And a recent crisis just proved how good and useful mobile phones
have been.

In 2020 we all had to face the coronavirus pandemic. We were forced to abandon
our work and our education to sit inside our homes, in order to prevent the disease
from spreading. Then, as we all know, mobile phones stepped into this situation,
enabling us to work from home, study from home and even connect with our
friends and family no matter how far they are from us. During that dangerous time
mobile phones gave us a new life, a different way to live, a new normal. Could you
even imagine how things would have been if we had no mobile phone then? People
wouldn’t have just died because of a virus; they would have died of loneliness. The
economy would have taken a much harder hit than what actually occurred,
potentially tripling poverty. In the worst-case scenario, people could have died from
hunger. We should all be glad that we had this piece of tech back then. And this is
just one single example of how mobile phones have been a boon to us, there are more
but just to make it short let’s further see how mobiles phones could also be a curse to
us.

Similar to its “lovely creators”, mobiles phones cause as much as harm as it does
good. It could affect our health, character, time and the other aspects of our lives in a
negative way. Starting with the health, mobile phones can lead to severe health issues,
not just physically but even mentally. Did you know that these tiny demons emit a
non-ionizing radio frequency radiation that could potentially cause brain tumours
according to some studies? I am pretty sure that I don’t need to mention how mobile
phones give us sleepless nights. Nor do I think I need to mention cases where
teenagers became addicted to their mobile phones and tragically ended up dead after
being separated from them. These days, most teen suicides aren't caused by breakups
with their partners; they occur mainly when they part with their mobile phones. The
road accidents caused by mobile phones have become a daily thing in the news. So
are the cases of harassment, abuse, bullying, stalking or non-consensual sharing of
explicit content through these pocket-friendly devices. We all should feel shame, not
because of mobile phones but because of how we use it.

So, are mobile phones a boon or a curse? The answer is pretty simple if we consider
another everyday instrument we use: a knife. A knife is generally used to cut
vegetables, ropes, chicken, meat, and so on. But it can also be used to take a life, it
can be used to create a murderer and a dead body. Does that mean a knife is a curse?
Are you going to cut vegetables with your teeth from tomorrow? I'm pretty sure no
one in the right state of mind will do that when they have a knife. Think logically; is
the murder the fault of the knife or the murderer? We are all smart enough to
understand that it was the fault of the murderer and not of the knife. The same can
be said about mobile phones. Mobile phones aren't the reason for all the bad things
caused through them. What we humans do with them is entirely our own
responsibility. We all tend to antagonise mobile phones by placing all the blame on
them. We have a tendency to frame things in a way that pins all the vices and wrongs
on mobile phones. It is evident that what mobile phones did is just make things
easier; it made it easier to do good as much as it made it easier to do bad. So, yes,
mobile phones are a boon, and also yes, mobile phones are a curse; it all just depends
on who uses them and for what.

-By Alan David