During the past two decades, phones have undergone a rapid transformation. We have witnessed a shift from bulky and less featured basic phones to light and compact smartphones with added functionalities. There has been the addition of several new applications and features which make smarthphones an irreplaceable aspect of our lives.

With this a term called Nomophobia – No Mobile Phobia, came into existence, which is the fear of being without mobile phone. And this modern day phobia is more prominent among the newer generation people who were brought up with this device.

A study was conducted on a group of 76 college students ranging in age from 18 to 22.They were barred from eating for three hours and had no access to their smartphones for two hours. After that, It was found out that the students were more tempted to use their smartphones instead of eating. And that definitely is shocking!

Let’s look out at some of the features which makes smartphones such a vital part of our day to day lives. Probably then we’ll be able to find out whether we can live without smartphones or not. 

The Standout Features Of A Present-Day Smartphone

MAPS

The Navigation feature at times proves to be one of the most useful features of a smartphone. No matter where you are stuck, your smartphone will be able to guide you to your destination or your home. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

The present generation has become a lot obsessed with social media/social connectivity apps like Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook etc. People thrive on social media and it is just as important to them as food, water and shelter. Striving for the social acceptance of others, social media apps let you connect with your friends and their friends as well.

CAMERA

Social Media is incomplete without the camera thing. Had cameras not come into existence there would have been no way you could update the world about what you are doing via pictures. While some people prefer clicking pictures of people (which mostly include selfies), others prefer to try and capture the beauty in nature or everyday objects.

ONLINE SHOPPING

This is yet another popular utility of smartphones. It is lot comfortable for people to use their smartphones to shop for things and get them delivered at their doorsteps instead of going into stalls and shops to buy goods and ask for services to be rendered.

ENTERTAINMENT APPS

Smartphones are quite often used for entertainment purposes like playing games , listening to music, watching movies or web series etc.

However the people have become a lot dependent on smartphones, and sometimes the passion for smartphones leads to addiction. According to a recent study conducted in UK it was found that 77% of the 18-24 age group people felt uncomfortable after being separated from their phones even for few minutes.

There are various diverse symptoms of smartphone addiction, few of them being the feeling of being left out or cutt-off or feeling stressed or incomplete without smartphones. People develop a compulsion to check for notifications,messages etc. They start using their phones at inappropriate places and even sleep with thier smartphone. Seeing all this, it seems that nowadays we cannot live without smartphones.

So, Can We Live Without Smartphones?

Well the answer to this is Yes, We can! Even before the smartphones came into existence people used to spend their lives quite happily. And now when they have come into existence, it wouldn’t be right to completely barr oneself from it and not benefit from the utilities and features that they offer.

So instead of asking whether we can live with or without smartphones, we should probably focus on how to live with it.

Certainly there are some people who might develop addiction towards smartphone usage but the best way to curb that is not the complete avoidance of this useful technology. Instead we should figure out ways to efficiently use this technology when we want to, and not the opposite. Disabling unwanted notifications and setting a limit on not so productive applications like social media would be of great help.