In defence of the “evil” smartphone

Published in El Pais, 30 Jan 2018

Smartphones are a recent invention but for most of us its hard to remember a time when they did not exist as they become intertwined with out lives. We go to great lengths to make sure the battery does not die and when we drop it and hear a crack we pray that the sound is one of our bones breaking and not the screen. Phone companies of course are talking about how are lives are better because of this but recently this dependency has come into a negative light with many calling it an outright addiction.
Right now, most of the attention is toward smartphone use in children as many parents are relying on their phone or tablet as a babysitting tool. Some of Apple’s top investors are calling the company out for not doing enough to limit the use of phones and musician’s such as Jack White (formerly of the White Stripes), has announced that phones will be banned at his shows, telling his fans to pay attention to the music instead.
There have been lots of research dedicated to the smartphone effects on a user’s health with research blaming smartphones for sleep troubles, depression and poor posture. There are also problems with pedestrians not paying attention to their surroundings, bumping into objects and even crossing the road when it is not safe to do so.
The concern is certainly not without substance considering the amount of time we do spend on our phones and if we are ever in a social setting we should certainly do our best to limit our use of these devices and focus on our friends and family, but it is worth noting that fear of disruptive technology ruining humanity is nothing new, in fact it has been around for over a thousand years. For centuries it was worried that the ability to write would affect memory loss. The invention of the telephone would cause mankind to be lazy and antisocial as they would call their friends instead of visiting them.

There are arguments on both sides but there is only one thing that is certain, the smartphone has only been around for 10 years and only been widely adopted for even less, making its existence a very small blimp on the history of humanity. The negative effects on smartphones need to be continually monitored and in the meantime common sense should apply, be careful when walking, limit the use in bed, and put down the phone and pay attention to the people you are with instead.