Smartphone: The Trojan horse in your pocket

When the digital mobile phone was invented in the 90s, it was a giant leap for mankind. We had managed to jack out the cable from the telephone shown below, and also add a new exciting feature called a Short Message Service (SMS), as well as a convenient feature called a phone-book.

The phonebook meant that we got to know who is calling without having them introduce themselves, and we could easily avoid picking calls from our debtors. The benefits of this technology cannot fully be measured, and maybe only the former landline service providers know what the mobile phone did. Imagine the dates that were cancelled because someone called while you were in the shower, or job interviews missed because the HR could not reach you using the nearest telephone booth? The mobile phone stands as the greatest invention since the flush toilet.

Over the 30 years of its existence, the mobile phone underwent some evolution. Initially it was big and heavy, then every manufacturer was in the race to get a smaller phone. When they had gotten so small and sleek, touch screens came around, and there was a need to get a bigger screen, and so the size started to grow again. Of course, other additional features influenced this trend. This includes better and more powerful processors, 3G and 4G networks, and better operating systems. Apps landed in their millions, and the data transfer speeds increased. Mobile phones became mini computers, and gave birth to smartphone and tablets. It is said that the average smartphone today has more processing power than the computers that were used to land man on the moon some 5 decades ago. The mobile phone has really grown.

And herein lies the problem. While we thought we had put a mobile calling device in our pockets, we ended up with powerful computing devices in our pockets. These devices can do so many things, which would shock people who lived in the 90s.

Thus, we can now access our offices away from work. We can answer emails any time. We can read the latest people magazine article as soon as it is published. We can keep up with hundreds of friends and fake friends all over the globe. We can follow proceedings of war in Yemen, a musician from Korea, and Donald Trump theatrics from the US. We can publish videos and websites that can be accessed from all over the world within minutes, and we have access to millions of books, games, and apps. We need the smartphone to find directions, to book and remember our appointments, to apply for jobs and source for talents, and even to study online. The small window that is our smartphone opens into a world of endless opportunities.

This has brought about challenges like information overload, privacy concerns, problem of being always connected and lack of separation of work and rest. We have no time to reflect and meditate. We follow strangers on social media, but do not know our neighbors. We have enough time for social media, but not time to read the good books. We play games with strangers millions of miles away, but have no time to play with our children. Many times we call everybody except the people that we need to talk to, and end up feeling guilty. We seem so full of life, while inside we are void of anything. We are fixated on superstars far away, and forget every day heroes on our doorsteps. We download cool wallpapers, but forget to notice flowers growing in our yards.

Like the famous horse that led to the all of heavily fortified city of Troy, the smartphone can easily bring us down. We need salvation from our smartphones.