I was on the phone to my friend a little while back and she tells me she’d like to get a new phone. I asked her, why, as I was fairly sure it wasn’t that old and it should still be working. It turned out there was nothing wrong with her phone, she just wanted an extra one in case hers stopped working. Her reasoning behind this was that she lives alone and wanted the peace of mind that if anything happened she could always get in touch with someone. I suggested she just install a landline but that idea got shot down very quickly (far to “un-modern”) so I suggested the solution would be to just go next door to her neighbours in an emergency.
But this conversation really made me stop and think. Do we really need to rely on our smartphones as much as we do? Or does the peace of mind from having the ability to contact anyone in seconds outweigh the negatives?
The problem with the smartphone is that it does more than just call people. The texting, social media, pictures, games and music, it’s a multi-functional device that not many people would be willing to give up.
There’s a dark side to the camera. No place is sacred anymore
Most people don’t see that the main problem may actually be the camera app. It’s often seen as an amazing invention allowing us to capture the moment with less faff than it was 20 years ago, something even your Grandma might appreciate. But there’s a dark side to the camera. No place is sacred anymore. We live in constant fear of being on someone’s Instagram story or in the back of a TikTok. It creates an environment where people have to be always on their guard concerned about a “resting bitch face” or being perceived as unintentionally rude.
Surely as long as you’re being considerate then this shouldn’t be an issue. Which is true, except now the person who you’re being inconsiderate to is yourself. By whipping your phone out at every moment, capturing it for later, you’re taking away from the real joy you would be experiencing at that time. Realistically how many times do you look at all the videos you’ve taken from a concert or the pictures of you and your friends on a night out after you’ve posted them to social media?
I know multiple people who are reverting back to the old style ipod
Even as I say this, I do agree. It’s nice to look back on a few years down the line. So what’s the solution? My friend has started to bring an old style digital camera with her to any event we would like to have pictures from, making taking photos into an event and therefore, no one is hidden behind their phone for the night. Not to mention the digital camera gives the pictures a nicer glow than a normal smartphone.
That’s not the only thing that can be replaced on a smartphone either. I know multiple people who are reverting back to the old style ipod shuffle devices so they can still privately listen to music whilst not having to keep their phone near them.
Is this the new way? Replacing all the different aspects of the smartphone to how we did it 20 years ago? I’d definitely like to see where we go with that, although I would suggest we’re quite away off from that.