It’s Dumb To Have A Smartphone

Let’s play I Spy. I spy with my little eye something that shines like silver, is soft as silicone and steals your data while tracking your every move. It’s a magical yet destructive device crafted from lithium and child labor — a smartphone. 

Like many 21st-century inventions, Androids and iPhones were arguably a net positive when first introduced in the mid-2000s. Combining the functions of a computer and a cell phone was undoubtedly a great technological feat with mass potential. 

Yet, like social media and podcasts, the smartphone market has become oversaturated and has filled our lives with stimulation without fulfillment. Cell phones absorb the quiet and, while maybe not exciting, necessary moments of a day.

The modern phone rewards quickly forgotten activities over contemplation.

With a heap of absurdly priced phones marginally improving upon the last, they’ve made little true advancements since their inception. But nearly every year, the new iPhone comes out and garners attention from giddy tech bros, despite the only change being a seventh camera where the charging port used to be.

Smartphones aren’t simply improving each year. In many ways, the method we’re using them in is moving us backward.

When Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone at the Macworld convention in 2007, I imagine neither Jobs nor any spectators could’ve fathomed the doomscrolling and idle game swiping that’d occur in the future.

Americans aged 16 to 64 spend an average of over seven hours a day on the internet, according to a 2023 GWI study. It was the advent of the smartphone that allowed these numbers to increase and move outside, beyond the library and the computer lab.

Young people now store smartphones in their pockets like gunslingers holstering Colt Peacemakers in the Wild West. It’s almost unnatural to leave the house without a phone.

The separation between online and offline is continuously narrowing.

With every literary text and encyclopedia at our fingertips, smartphones have facilitated unlimited access to unlimited knowledge. Yet this seeming Garden of Eden is still plagued by a forbidden fruit.

Phone distractions are a manufactured black hole. We gravitate toward our phones for stimulation. People may think worse of themselves for their distraction addictions, yet deceptive, snake-like tech companies see attention as a currency and have led us precisely down this path.

More screen time means more eyes on ads, bringing in revenue for these companies. The smartphone has been squeezed to its last drop of value, deflating into a fix-all product that in actuality makes humans hollow. 

Human curiosity has been put on a leash. Even online research has been diminished to a five-second Google search with an AI overview.

People are faced with an abundance of information, some important and true, but much is unreliable and reeking of propaganda. Fake news has become even more of an uncontrollable mitosis with the onset of deepfakes and AI.

This overhaul of stimulation carries into the outside world — even when our phones are turned off. Airpods and other noise-canceling earbuds have severed many daily interactions with others. With the constant connection of some devices to our lives, we’ve become more machine than human.

The physical effects of prolonged phone use are also detrimental to our health. No one puts sitting like a gargoyle and watching Instagram Reels for four hours on their schedule, stooped over in near fetal position, phone brighter than a white dwarf sun, and yet it continues to happen.

The physical effects of prolonged phone use are also detrimental to our health. These smartphone habits not only negatively affect physical health, but mental health too. Excessive screen time increases levels of depression and anxiety, according to a 2023 National Library of Medicine study.

Let’s return to the 20th-century phone, it’s less dangerous and more fun anyhow. 

Nothing beats striding down the street on a call with a flip phone. It’s suave and gives every call an air of important business.

Even a rotary dial home phone from the ‘50s would be more beneficial to the average person than today’s omnipresent electronics. Spinning each digit of a person’s phone number really makes one think about the importance of the upcoming call, unlike today where my dentist can mistakenly butt dial me.

A pager would also be a worthy replacement, easily receiving texts without the burden of carrying an all-absorbing phone. 

Whatever the device may be, it’s important to take back the duller moments of life. We can try to rewire our habits to not immediately reach for our phones when a conversation grows quiet or when we have to wait in line at a coffee shop.

Getting rid of smartphones isn’t a ploy from the fun police to restrict everyone’s joy. It’s my plea to watch how much we let technology consume our lives, and to make sure each moment is decided by ourselves and not a screen.