What the World Would Look Like Without Smartphones

Written by: Ayat Al-Saied

A world without smart phones, it’s hard to imagine isn’t it? Even children are using smartphones nowadays. According to a study made by eMarketer.com, the number of smartphone users around the world should be 1.9 billion people by the end of 2015, and should reach 2 billion users by 2016. If current world population is 7.3 billion people; this means that almost one quarter people are using smartphones around the world.

People have become very reliant on their smartphones; they use them for almost everything, aside from the main purpose of having mobiles which is making calls and texting, people are using their smartphones for web browsing, social networking, taking photos, watching videos, listening to music and gaming. A Time magazine survey showed that 84% smartphone users say they couldn’t go a single day without their devices and that one in four people check their phones every thirty minutes, while one in five check every ten minutes. People would be absolutely lost if they forgot their smartphone at home for one day, or if they lent it to a friend because his smartphone was broken and he needs it for work just until he buys a new one, god forbid it gets lost or stolen, then they would feel like their child is missing! There actually is a name for this fear of losing your phone it’s called Nomophobia.

Of course using smartphones has helped our lives in a way we never thought was possible, they have become indispensable we can’t deny that. There are countless advantages to using smartphones which I’m not going to even get into, because you all know how much you can’t live without them. But I would like to shed some light on some of the disadvantages as people seem to be forgetting them:

• Addiction

Studies have shown that the average using of smartphones is 3 hours per day, -that’s the average! Which I still think is high- so if you’re spending more time than that, congratulations consider yourself an addict and the more you use it the higher your risk of becoming addicted. I believe we have enough addictions don’t you think? These stupid smart phones as what I like to call them are taking up so much of our time; think about how much time of your one life you’re wasting on your smartphone, precious time that you can’t get back, we need to realize that and reevaluate our smartphone usage.

• Car accidents

More and more car accidents are caused by smartphones every day, statistics made in 2012 in the US alone report that using a smartphone while driving causes up to 1.6 million crashes every year and 1 out of every 4 car accidents is caused by texting while driving, the percentage of death caused by that is even higher than the one caused by driving drunk can you believe that?

• Social isolation

In every family event you see this scene, you enter a room and there are teenagers and there are adults who have their heads buried inside their smartphones, which is totally inappropriate and totally rude. You probably haven’t seen these people in ages, so you show some interest you start a discussion with them and they’re not paying attention to what anyone is saying because they think their smartphone is much more important than anything you have to say. Even at friends’ reunions, before they meet they would be like “Oh my god I miss you so much!” and once they do you find them so occupied with their devices, it’s really sad but also kind of ironic!

• Selfie Obsession (Selfitis)

Being a fan of photography myself I appreciate the convenience of having a camera everywhere I go without having to actually do the heavy lifting every time. But I don’t understand the obsession with taking pictures of yourself and your everyday activities and posting every single one of them on all your Social Media accounts. Psychiatrists believe that if you take more than 3 selfies a day, then you have a mental disorder called “Selfitis”, this is actually a very important and dangerous issue right now because it is believed that it can lead to depression and even suicide, but that’s a very long topic which I’m probably going to discuss further in another blog.

My point is smartphones can be very dangerous if we misuse them, we need to be very aware of that and become in control of the situation before it controls us. Personally I prefer using a laptop for web browsing, social networking and everything else, I think that separating these actions from you phone and using it only for making phone calls and texting is the healthiest way to go, but that’s just my opinion.

Life before smartphones better or worse? What do you think?