Have you ever imagined how life and living would have been without an essential piece of technology like the mobile phone? No…I don’t think you understand me yet, I mean, have you ever lost your mobile phone or sent it for repairs only to have it stay probably a week or more with the technician? The thought alone is depressing not to talk more of the experience. To me, it feels like am being cut off from everything and everyone, especially nowadays that we have loads we do on a mobile phone.
Technology has gone wide, wild and weird, we are only trying to brace up, fit in and maximize it. Mobile phones have become a big part of the daily life experience that it seems difficult to go an hour without. Life and living over time have become so much integrated with this piece of technology that it has become a simplified means for communications and sustaining relationships.
The mobile phone, cell phone, handphone, handset or whatever you choose to call it, is a compact telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link within a telephone service area even when the user is on a go.
To initiate or receive a call on a mobile phone, the radio frequency will need to create a connection with the switching systems responsible for performing call processing and subscriber related functions which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) responsible for linking the switching system and the fixed network. This process happens in split seconds that you won’t have to explain this to anyone.
The first-ever mobile phone weighing about 2 kilograms was tested by a team led by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola, a tech company in New York U.S.A, in 1973. Then in 1979, the first cellular network was launched in Japan. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x became the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. Between 1983 and 2021, mobile phones have massively evolved from heavy button-keyboard phones to sleek soft-touch smartphones.
According to Jan 2022 statistics conducted by DataReportal, it estimates that over 5.31 billion (67.1%) people all over the world own one or more mobile phones. This is to state that mobile phone usage is currently growing at a rate of 1.8 per cent every year seeing 1 million new smartphones leaving the shelves
everyday.
The benefits of the mobile phone are too numerous to list; it has not only shaped our world in ways we thought impossible, but it has also made our world more interconnected, life made simpler, living seamless and fun-filled. Communication in relationships has become heartier. Outlining the inherent benefits of the mobile phone:
1. Ease In Communication
Before telephones became mobile, fixed land phones and payphones made communications very uneasy. The advent of mobile phones has not only made communications effortless, but it has also made it fun-filled with loads of flexibility like social media which is a viable means of communication and expression nowadays.
2. Education
As common as PCs have become, it is still unaffordable for many; just imagine what would have been the lot of many students who can’t afford one. Smartphones have been an alternative for students in accessing the internet, studying online, downloading online resources and as much as schooling virtually. Nowadays a student without a smartphone is just as disadvantaged as one who doesn’t have a textbook.
3. Business
Business is going digital, very soon there won’t be a need for physical offices as most businesses are beginning to operate remotely. With the growth in user-friendly mobile applications and websites, most businesses account for huge ROI. A wider customer base provided by the internet allows customers to have access to products and services from various locations.
4. Entertainment
Without saying nothing, you already know how much entertainment your mobile phone adds to your life daily. You have all the entertainment in your palms when you own a mobile phone; the days of boredom are gone because you can watch videos nonstop, listen to music, take pictures, create videos and also play games all with a mobile phone; what can beat that?
Time will never permit me to enumerate how beautiful mobile phones have made our lives. With a mobile phone, you already have a GPS waiting for you to navigate your way at all times, an inbuilt calculate assisting you with calculations, a calendar keeping you up to date and schedules. Camera for photography to liven your memories and a flashlight to save you from stumbling in the dark.
In conclusion, the mobile phone with all of its innumerable benefits has countable flaws and consequences, but I think with caution and discipline we will continue to maximize all of its benefits undeterred.