The world of communication changed by leaps and bounces with the introduction of cellular phones, commonly known today as ‘mobile phones’. These live up to the true sense of term and serve as portable communication hubs. We can walk with it anywhere and talk.
There is no wore or any other form of entanglement. This mobile phone was a huge step in bringing the world closer. However, there are two schools of thought – one who consider it a boon to mankind and the other group who are of the strong opinion that mobile phones do more harm than good.
Mobile phone was designed as a tool for communication and it serves that purpose really well. In addition to that, with the development of microprocessors and Integrated circuits, mobile phones have been embedded with other functionalities like music, camera, etc.
The advent of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Technology has made it possible to include almost all the functionalities of a computer into the tiny piece which can be carried in our pockets.
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Advantages of Mobile Phones
Mobile phones give us the freedom to talk without any wires. Wireless technology is the future of communication. It gives us the advantage of talking to anyone we like at any time and at any location. We don’t need to go to a phone booth or stand near the telephone to talk to someone. This also boosts our privacy and makes conversation more secure to intrusion.
Since mobile phones are small and cheap, today everyone can carry a personal mobile phone of their own and this is of immense advantage for the safety and security of an individual. If someone is in some problem, he can immediately contact his near and dear ones to ask for assistance.
Even the police can be summoned if situations of that sort are faced with. Parents can take a breath of relief with their kids leaving home without them. A mobile phone will always keep them up to date with their whereabouts and make sure that they are not in any trouble.
Mobile phones support Short Messaging Service (SMS) through which text information can be dispersed. This has made broadcast of crucial information much more easy.
One can send data like numbers, names, technical details, etc through text messages if the person is not available to talk.
Because of the support of Internet on mobile phones, literally, the world has come to the reach of our palms. We can read news anywhere and about anything in real time.
Instantaneously, news reaches us. This helps in connecting the world strongly and also in making us more aware of our surroundings. Important information, like weather report and news about storms, earthquakes, etc can be dispersed in no time.
Because of a variety of applications, colloquially known as ‘apps’ that help know a variety of things, we need not refer to books for knowing things. All information about any topic can easily be retrieved using the World Wide Web on mobile phones. This facilitates in the better transmission of information and knowledge and helps in the prosperity of education, science and research.
Today, mobile phones also support Electronic Book (e-book) functionality which allows us to load large and cumbersome volumes and anthologies of books in to single mobile phones. This negates the need to carry large, heavy and inconvenient books with us all the time when we can carry an entire library in the grip of our palms and at the push of a button.
Disadvantages of Mobile Phones
With all these advantages that mobile phones have given us as boons, there still exist some disadvantages just like with anything else in the world. Just as mobile phones have shortened distances making the world a global village, speaking from a social standpoint, it has also distanced human beings from one another. Today we talk with friends and relatives on phones.
We greet them birthday and festival wishes through phones. Meeting people and talking in real-life has taken a dip. This fuels the unsociality and slowly we lose our own identity as an individual. We get scared to interact and talk with new people in real life. Advancements in mobile technology have enabled features like video chatting, social networking, etc has only boosted this unsocial attitude that we have domesticated.
Because of the increasingly growing features of mobile phone, people from all age groups have started using it so much so that it has reached a level of an addiction.
Nowadays, it is extremely difficult for an individual to live without his smartphone for a few hours. This, as per physiologists have shortened the brain’s response time and made us impatient making us hungry of instant gratification.
Children who are constantly glued to their mobile phones have their eyes affected by the harmful rays that can lead to loss of vision as well as blindness. These harmful rays are also found to affect the behavioral patterns of an individual by causing significant nervous damage.
Scientists have also found that holding mobile phones close to our ears causes the radio waves to pierce through our bodies that has long term ill-effects and can even result in various forms of cancer.
In the recent past there have also been several cases of explosion of mobile phones. Being electronic items, it is not at all fool proof and the battery used in it might explode anytime causing severe damage and burns, not only to the person possessing the phone but also to the bystanders.
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it is clear that mobile phones have its advantages as well as disadvantages. But it offers us various facilities that far outweigh its vices.
At the same time, few of its negativities are so vicious in nature that it’s advantage are not worth taking such risks. Whether it is a necessary evil or an evil necessity is for us to decide. This is life – an odd mix of opposites. It is our calling as to how we use it for the betterment of our race and go forward.
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