21st century technology

Vivian Nguyen

Professor Roundtree

Art and Technology

Mobile Cell Phones

Cell phones. The modern-day craze. Life would not be as convenient, as it is without it. Living in the 90’s, beepers were an item to reminisce over. Watching our parents struggle to get to a payphone or a house phone when their boss would send them an alert was a knee-slapper compared to now. Also, do house phones even exist anymore? Many of us do not own one, although it is encouraged for home safety procedures.

 Mobile phones have come a long way since the 1990’s. The evolution of buttons to having a touchscreen is remarkable. The infamous large brick phones, to flip phones, to having an invention of fairly thin rectangles in the palm of your hands might have shocked most elders into cardiac arrest. Not only did that shape and size have convenience society, but the jump from just phones calls has extended into a broader usage (Ray, Amanda). Texting, emails, organizing work meetings, social media platforms, and even games have buried itself into civilization with the norms of today. Long ago, texting was quite the minimal message. Now, it is the most common tool for communication.

The shift away towards phone calls has interrupted the development of the millennial group being comfortable speaking on the phone (Buchanan, Daisy). It might have to do with something about not being able to feel the sensory and voice of another actual human being to be able to withstand a comfort zone where one could speak without any embarrassment or anxiety from one person to another. Society has ingrained the idea that speaking to an actual human being is a spook, so machine pre-recorded messages relieve the anxiety for most of us. As well as actual robots that they are developing in Japan to take your fast food order and even to give you directions (Chamlee, Virginia).

Given that thought of futuristic technologies, cell phones could possibly influence a built-in system in our brains in the future. Once a child is born, their parents would have to purchase a smartphone system of some sort to develop an internal communication device that does not have to be handheld. Text messages will be read to us as if we were speaking to ourselves. With this idea in mine, humankind would never have to hold a physical cell phone to communicate ever again.

Speaking from experiencing and going through many different kinds of mobile devices, phones came in many different shapes and sizes. There were so many unsuccessful touch screens that companies had experimented with. Sony, for example, had a touchscreen phone where the screen was made out of hard plastic. It vibrated every time you touched the screen to provide a sense that you are touching a button. On the back of the cell phone, it had a large click and point camera with a large lens attached. The main purpose of the phone was that it had a point and shoot camera. Pretty certain it got discontinued not too long after it was released.

In conclusion, the evolution of cell phones has made a remarkable leap for mankind. In two ways, the good and the bad. The bad is that we are now disconnecting more and more from our friends and family due to this addiction of wanting to connect with others through the screen, instead of in person. Photos are being able to be captured faster, though we are so worried about taking the image and keeping the memories forever that we forget to enjoy the moment, the app Snapchat for example, encourages to show others what is actually happening right then and there, instead of enjoying it first ourselves. The good is that we have everything we need all in one system. The convenience has disintegrated the need of excess platforms that we would have have to carry if it was not for smartphones.

It is frightening how much we depend on our cellphones, the lives of many rely and revolve on just one item. If the most important thing in our society this time and day would be locked in a time capsule, that would not be opened for hundreds of years, not one single item would be in there because we could not have the courage to abandoned our precious cell phones.

SOURCES

Buchanan, Daisy. "Wondering why that millennial won't take your phone call? Here's why | Daisy Buchanan." The Guardian. August 26, 2016. Accessed October 14, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/26/whatsapp-phone-calls-smartphone-messaging-millennials.

Chamlee, Virginia. "At Pizza Hut in Japan, a Robot Will Soon Take Your Order." Eater. May 24, 2016. Accessed October 14, 2017. https://www.eater.com/2016/5/24/11761472/pizza-hut-robot-japan.

Ray, Amanda. "The History and Evolution of Cell Phones." The History and Evolution of Cell Phones. Accessed October 14, 2017. https://www.artinstitutes.edu/about/blog/the-history-and-evolution-of-cell-phones.