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Question
What are the social effects of everyone on the planet having cell phones?
Answer
The Social Effects of Everyone Having a Mobile Phone
The Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), in its 2014 mobile carrier industry alliance survey, put the number of active mobile connections at 7.5 billion (GSMA 2). The survey also found that only about 10 per cent of the earth’s 7.3 billion people lacks mobile phones. In the event that everyone on the planet has a mobile phone, the social effects will be phenomenal (GSMA 2). The technology has its positive and negative effects, and the latter constitute a major concern for an increasingly mobile-connected society. In the event that everyone on the planet acquires a mobile phone, it would be easy to facilitate interpersonal communication. All one would require is reliable mobile network coverage.
On the other hand, the modern day mobile phones have added capabilities that have greatly enhanced their utility. Today, almost every mobile phone comes fitted with a camera, internet access capability, a video player, and an FM radio. Smartphones have advanced features that make them even more productive and useful in numerous ways in addition to voice and text communication. As things stand so far, mobile phones and the accompanying advancements have offered a wide range of applications. They bring luxury to life, while at the same time potentially bring about detriment to society in equal measure.
One of the most common problems in a hypothetical world where everyone has a mobile phone is that everyone will be just a call away from distraction. Besides, modern mobile phones are very addictive, and their numerous features often drive users into getting accustomed to the distractions they cause through messages, calls, app updates, and notifications on social-media posts (Geser 9).
It will be common, and in some societies it already is, to see almost everyone distracted by smartphones that constantly alert them about newly posted messages, photos, Internet updates, instant messaging updates. The distractions will end up lowering the ability to concentrate as the masses will always be struggling to keep up with the incessant frequency of messages being delivered to the mobile phones. In a scenario where everyone will have a mobile phone, many people’s ability to learn, work, think, and maintain face-to-face conversations will be severed interfered with negatively. Far-fetched as this may sound, such issues will lead to a dysfunctional world where social interactions as we know them will no longer exist.
The other negative social effect that may arise out of everyone possessing a mobile phone is the depletion of personal time. The greatest convenience that arises from mobile phone use is that they make it possible for anyone to be contacted with ease as long as they are on the network and their mobile phone is on. Geser agrees that the contemporary mobile phone technology has been developed with very little regard for personal time, and that in the event everybody on the planet has a mobile phone, an imminent social crisis will unfold due to massive loss of valuable personal time for all members of the community (16). Personal time is a necessity for at the personal and social levels because it leads to the creation of an ideal environment for reflection, exercise of one’s hobbies and relaxation.
Undoubtedly, mobile phones for everyone will have quite some negative effects on social interactions. Already, the mobile phones have altered the nature of social communication by diverting more and more people away from face-to-face communication and towards text and other forms of instant messaging and social-media chats. If mobile phones were to be made accessible by all people, then the scale of the problem would only grow as virtually everyone would opt for text message conversations as opposed to normal face-to-face conversations even when no geographical barriers exist. The real danger then will ultimately come about when their social skills will start to deteriorate due to the continued adoption of this impersonal form of communication at the expense of the traditional face-to-face interactions. In the end, poor social skills will result in poor interpersonal relations between people and subsequent breakdown of communication leading to conflicts (Aker and Mbiti, 207).
Despite these negative effects, society stands to benefit a lot from increased mobile-phone connectivity. For instance, mobile phones have enabled millions of people to transcend the barriers imposed by the traditional banking industry. Mobile banking has become a reality, such that anyone with a mobile phone to access banking services on the go. Such a high level of financial inclusion means that people can send money to each other regardless of their location on the planet. In the long run, this will lead to tremendous economic growth and prosperity. For instance, the use of mobile banking services alone has caused the number of unbanked persons around the world to drop 2 billion people, representing a 20 percent decrease between 2011 and 2014 (Aker and Mbiti 231). Some of the other positive effects of everyone owning a mobile phone include improved governance, agriculture, health, and education across communities.
Conclusively, a world where everyone has a mobile phone would be an ideal one. Mobile phones make it possible for people to contact each other with ease. Despite the fact that mobile phones sometimes trigger unfavorable distractions that make it harder for people to learn, work or socialize thereby potentially ruining their social skills, they still have a potential to improve people’s lives across all sectors and spheres of life.
Works Cited
Aker, Jenny C. and Isaac M. Mbiti. “Mobile phones and economic development in Africa.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24.3 (2010): 207-232.
Geser, Hans. “Is the cell phone undermining the social order? Understanding mobile technology from a sociological perspective.” Knowledge, Technology & Policy, 19.1 (2006): 8-18.
GSMA. The Mobile Economy 2014. Web.
