Cellphone - Helpful Partner but Mask Producer

(Just for fun!)

    Communication is getting more and more important to our lives, mobile phones must be the most influential among all the communication products. According to Amber Case, nowadays, we are all half cyborgs due to the reliance to the digital equipment, especially the cellphones (Amber Case, 2012). A report from the International Telecommunications Union indicated that cellphone is the fastest accepted high technological product since the dawn of human nature. In the end of 2010, the total number of mobile phones has reached around 5 billion (International Telecommunication Union, 2010). And the global popularity rate of cellphones increased to 70% from 12% between 2000 and 2010.

    Over the past 30 years, the fundamental functions of cellphones has not only been making phone calls or messages, but also been integrated with picturing, video/audio playing, internet-surfing, GPS navigator, wireless connection etc. And the revolution of cellphone is gradually becoming realized. It seems really predictable that the functions and applications are still rapidly evolving.

    Most importantly, the future of cellphones will be more intelligent. And cellphone is becoming an indispensible intelligent partner. With the combination of internet service and the development of hardware and software, cellphone users could get online to read news, watch TV programs, post Twitters; they could publish their own videos on Facebook sharing with friends and receiving comments; they could control household electrical appliances through cellphone command. In the future, under the support of developing internet and operation systems, more and more virtualized and humanized services will be available to cellphone users.

    What’s more, cellphone will become mobile sensors scattering around the world. When all cellphones get online, every user could become a publisher of its local news. When all information is gathered, a full-view picture of the real-time world. At that moment, hundreds of weather detectors will not be retired and replaced by millions of cellphone temperature and light sensors. Meanwhile, the real-time transportation condition will be updated according to the analysis based on the number of congested cellphone signals and their moving speed and direction instead of helicopters and roadbed sensors which require large amount of commercial or governmental investments.


   However, as Turkle has mentioned in her lecture “Connected, but alone?” on TED, we are unprecedentedly largely isolated by our cellphones (Turkle, 2012). Though people are connected to the internet almost all time, the time of face to face conversation is constantly decreasing. Nevertheless, the preference to chat by typing indicates the mental obstacle in interpersonal communications (Lorente, 2002). And it is really harmful for both individual and human development, because it cripples people’s ability of real talk and cooperation allowing the existences of more misunderstandings. People begin to stay behind the mask produced by cellphone screens. Thus, the trust between people is dying and that is what actually leads to the loneliness. For young people, they seem more likely to get into troubles with their phones by, for example, cyber bullying, sexting, distracted driving, cheating and so on (Common Sense Media, 2010). Parents should pay enough attention to that.

    So, more properly, cellphones has been making things convenient, but it was also simplifying, crippling and fading our lives. And individuals should be cautious about their cellphones.

  

Reference

Amber Case, 2012, We Are All Cyborgs Now, viewed April 8, 2013,
 < http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html>

International Telecommunication Union, 2010, ICT Facts Figures 2010, viewed April 8, 2013, <http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2010.pdf>

Turkle, S 2012, Connected, but Alone?, viewed April 8, 2013, < http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html>

Lorente, S 2002, Youth and Mobile Phones: Something More Than a Fashion, viewed April 8, 2013, <http://www.itu.int/osg/spuold/ni/ubiquitous/Papers/Paper_Youth_and_mobile.pdf>

Common Sense Media, 2010, Do Smart Phones = Smart Kids?  viewed April 8, 2013, 

<http://www.itu.int/council/groups/wg-cop/second-meeting-june-

2010/CommonSenseSmartPhCommonSenseSmartPhonesS.pdf>