Ever wonder, while stuck in a traffic jam on crazy I-20 in freezing cold snow and about to tear your hair out because of frustration, where a detour might possibly be? At that exact moment, the realization that all such knowledge plus more is on the newly invented iPhone laying in the passenger seat just to the right hits like a freight train crushing a moped. Whether searching for a detour off of a backed up interstate or simply curious how tall Nate Robinson might be, cell phones, and smartphones especially, have greatly changed people’s lives in today’s world. People’s lives today have been affected by cell phones in a positive way by enabling us to have an unlimited amount of knowledge quickly accessible at the tips of our fingers and in a negative way by raising a new generation of virtual anti-socials.
Positively, cell phones have provided many business-men, stay-at-home-moms, and high-school students with the ability to quickly access an unlimited amount of knowledge from practically anywhere and everywhere. For example, in today’s society, while lost in the never-ending plains of Kansas, one can quickly and easily pull over to the side of the road and ask Siri how to get from point A to point B fastest and easiest. In today’s world, smartphones can quickly and thoughtlessly retrieve information and statistics. As a result, the business-men, stay-at-home-moms, and high-school students of today’s society are sometimes more knowledgeable than past generations, while sometimes using “cyber-space” as an excuse to not need to be well educated. In addition, one can be coasting down the Indian Nation Turnpike at an unfriendly 85 miles per hour, and, just simply out of pure and honest curiosity, check the current scores for all division-1 men’s basketball games. Because of simplified ordeals such as checking scores and finding information, the current generation in society, especially today’s teenagers, have become an “idk”-and-“idc”-just-ask-Siri reliant generation. Smartphones, providing men and women alike with unlimited knowledge such as directions to kingdom-come and sports scores in the blink of an eye, have led many teenagers and adults to become less self-dependent and more phone-dependent.
Negatively, cell phones in today’s society, and specifically smartphones, have reduced many mortal souls from a life of professional and correct face-to-face conversing to yield a crop of virtual antisocials when it comes to simple conversations. For example, a variety of couples in today’s society enjoy dates through face-to-face conversation. Although many couples converse with each other on dates, many resort, while in the middle of an outing to the prestigious and oh-so-expensive Reunion tower, to texting and surfing the web on their smartphones instead of engaging in purposeful speech focused on each other. As a result, many of today’s relationships fail and falter quickly and easily due to a lack of communication and knowing the other person.
Imagine zipping by all the congested traffic and ticked off, fuming “drivers” on backed up I-20 on the frontage road that the iPhone found practically mindlessly in the blink of an eye. Frustration. Avoided.