DEPENDENCE ON SMART DEVICES AND TECHNOLOGY | Effect on Education, Health, Purchase Behavior, and Convenience

 

dependence on smart devices and technology

Human dependency on smartphones and technology, and their effect on education, health, purchase behavior, and convenience.


    

    

    

 


Dependence on Smart Devices and Technology

The world has constantly changed, as technology is constantly developing. We are at a time when almost every work, has now depended upon technology. Technology till the 1960s was just for technical and operational work. There was also the requirement of the man-force to run and operates the machines. But software technology has completely changed the work dilemmas and now the effort of human force is reduced. Machines can be operated through artificial intelligence without mistakes and even they don’t need time for rest. Also, we are so much dependent on smart devices at this time that even most of the time in a day, we use them. Smart devices are developing and changing with the development of technology. These are becoming more effective and useful for humans. We should ask whether these smart devices will grow more. As we can see the development in the technology of internet and network services has also developed mobile phones and devices. Like now we can use high-speed internet for GPS, mail, data transfer, video calling, live streaming, etc. Even it had clubbed a lot of technology in a single smartphone device. Like a calculator, torch, messaging, TV, Radio, Newspapers, etc. We can now use all these things in just one handset.

Smart devices are basically some electronic devices that can perform their specified functions automatically and these devices take the connection of other devices to operate, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G data, etc. Smart devices are those devices that we often use and see in our daily life like Smartphones, Smartwatches, refrigerators, tablets, Smart speakers, and even doorbells. These devices can also base on some artificial intelligence sources. Mark Weiser a computer scientist has presented artificial intelligence based on these three devices: Boards, pads, and tabs. The tabs are suitable cm-measured gadgets, while the Pads signify hand-held decimeter-sized gadgets, while the Boards assign meter-estimated intuitive presentation gadgets. According to Weiser, the most intense technologies are those which convert into reality and are part of the daily task of the future. Like writing, it is the first information technology. Now, no one calls it technology. It is now an essential part of life in the form of books, newspapers, magazines, and even street boards based on this technology. But now who called it a technology? No one. Another technology Silicon-based information technology, interestingly, is a long way from having progressed toward becoming a piece of the earth. More than 45 million PCs have been sold, and regardless, the computers remain generally in their very own kind. It is agreeable just through complex language that has nothing to do with the assignments for which individuals really use PCs. The cutting edge is maybe comparable to the period when recorders needed to know as much about making ink or heating earth as they did about composition (Weiser, 1991).

In the past few years, mobile phone technology has developed very fast. The concept of a mobile phone has totally changed. Now everyone can easily access of smartphone and even students are using it for their education and other matters. According to a report by EDUCAUSE, in America now sixty-three percent of undergraduate students have access to smartphones (Seilhamer, Chen, Bauer, Salter, & Bennett, 2018).

For accessing GPS, maps, watching videos, reading books, and all of their work, they can just use their smartphones with an internet connection. Until the mid-19th century, the major source for the in-school and out-of-school education, available to the students was radio AM service and after that FM radio services and television. But in the last two decades all education, knowledge, and information come into the hand of a student in the shape of a Smartphone. Young people can use and understand the functions of mobile earlier than older ones. Pew Internet has shown some statistics in his report that, then 50% of people, between the ages of 18 to 30, have smartphones, and below 25% of people, having aged more than 50 years have smartphones (SMITH, 2011).

Most of the country's mobile phone industries have grown rapidly after the availability of 3G and 4G services. In April 2014, Pakistan’s market was 15% and after the access of 3G and 4G to the public, it goes to 50% of the mobile phone industry. And there was an increase of 1 billion Rupees in just a few months after the auction of these services (Baloch, 2014).

As technology is growing and developing rapidly, buildings and homes are going to be more developed and changed in the future. For many years researchers and scientists are working to create a system almost automated or semi-automated to help and assist people in their homes. Finally, in the 1970s, the system X10, an automated system for the house, was developed (Sultan & Nabil, 2016).  Home automation and smart homes (otherwise called demotic) may be portrayed as a presentation and innovation inside a home condition for giving accommodation, solace, security, and vitality effectiveness for its inhabitants. With a presentation of the Internet of Things, an examination and execution of home mechanization are getting increasingly prominent. Different remote advances that can bolster some type of remote information exchange, detection, and control, for example, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, and cell systems have been used to insert different dimensions of insight in a home. Examinations have displayed Bluetooth-based home mechanization frameworks utilizing Android Smartphones without Internet controllability. Gadgets are physically associated with a Bluetooth sub-controller which is gotten to and constrained by a Smartphone utilizing a worked-in Bluetooth network. Scientists have additionally endeavored to give organized interoperability and remote access to control gadgets and machines at home utilizing home portals. Proposed versatile IP-based design and its potential applications in Smart homes security and mechanization with no genuine arrangement and testing. A late couple of scientists have additionally exhibited a utilization of Web administrations, the straightforward article gets to a convention (SOAP), and authentic state exchange (REST) like an interoperable application layer to remotely get to home mechanization frameworks. Presented a keen home administration conspiracy over an Ethernet organization dependent on XML SOAP guidelines. A disadvantage of utilizing SOAP-based Web administration is that it is mind-boggling and adds overhead to a customer and server while parsing a message, bringing about slower activity and higher transfer speed (Piyare & Lee, 2013).

 

Social Dependency:

These smart devices are influencing our social life and the Mobile phone has now turned into a social need of our society. We need a cell phone to interact with people and communicate in our daily life with people connected with us, and for our work and jobs. Social need is constantly pushing us toward the rapid use of smartphones. It has connected all the people on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The most unique use of the computer through the internet was the sending and receiving emails and messages and accessing other data through the internet, but smartphones had also declined the excessive use of computers because all those works can be done easily with cell phones. Also, this unnecessary social connection between the societies is influencing people's behaviors, like now anyone can comment and influence the feelings of others. The media, public figures, friends, and other connected people can be able to influence any person socially through these cell phones. One of the huge impacts on society of technology development is it has changed social relations and interactions among people. These relationship has changed completely because of this internet access and social media influences. These people are now dependent upon the information taken through the internet and do not believe in reality and information comes through their own observance. And this has completely changed their behaviors to those people who were discussed as bad people on the internet (Sutton, 2013).

Convenience Dependency:

Smart home system:

Convenience is the main reason behind the selling of these smart home systems. People are buying and installing devices for their own convenience. The convenience of not doing the daily boring work, the convenience of enjoying free time at home, the convenience of doing things easily, and cleaning the house easily, etc., are the reasons why these Smart Home systems are useful and selling. Also, through this people got control over their homes and time. According to research, we are at the stage where only decisions about the family are required to make by the parents, all other work can be done by machines (Montano, Lundmark, & Mähr, 2011).

Smartphone: Today, consumers have a strong need for accessing the internet and sending and receiving messages at any place and at any time. That’s why people are now dependent on mobile phones for the convenience they get. Now, we can easily access different servers and sites and collect and transmit any kind of information by using cell phones at any place. If we can see the smartphone abilities we can say that now we have a cellphone as a laptop in our pockets. Internet usually provides us a convenience that we can’t recognize, like the old messaging system and paper mailing system through posting and the new E-mail technology comparison can elaborate the real meaning of convenience we get from the latest technology. By using a smartphone and other mobile applications which are free for download, users can swing the standardized tag at an item on the physical store and afterward create the item and organization data naturally and instantly progressively. The use of smartphones enables users to shop for products and services from anywhere in the world with a higher level of convenience, pliability, coherence, and distinction. This clearly shows that the development of smartphone technology is constantly changing human behavior and changing their level of convenience. In the Internet of Things, clients may be viewed with a socially dynamic perspective, with different settings, in different jobs, and using diverse devices in different settings. Vitally, Internet innovation will be layered with man-made consciousness that serves to help each undertaking with the fitting arrangement of assets: things. To boost usefulness, gadgets, and web applications should be on steady exchange, practically speaking tweaking personalization and alpha convenience (Suki, 2013).

Purchasing:

The recent development in the technology of smartphones shows that it will overhaul the antediluvian cell phones. Smart devices are offering so many new features and benefits to the users that the basic purpose of the smartphone has completely changed, and its impact on the social and convenience dependence on employees is changing students’ behavior, and this behavioral change is influencing the purchase behavior. The excessive knowledge about the products through the internet has developed the customer’s interest in buying the more useful thing and new technology. This knowledge and advertisement through the internet are influencing man’s expectations for future purchases. Media transmission gadget encourages everyone to impart from a separation. The main media transmission gadget was known as Paper. The paper was the little media communications gadget that could just use to get or transmit ready flags and send short messages. In the year 1973, the Cellphone was designed by Motorola specialist Martin Cooper. The conventional cellphone is structured huge and massive in size and just conveys some fundamental usefulness, for example, call and short informing framework (SMS). The cellphone is currently additionally refined to a littler and smaller form. From the cellphone that comprises various catches, the telephone is currently developing progress toward becoming a cell phone as it tends to be constrained by contact screen. As a rule, a cell phone is an augmentation of the customary handheld cell phone. In any case, it plays out a more extensive scope of capacities. These days, the cell phone has been profoundly acknowledged by the vast majority around the globe and has turned into a fundamental piece of everybody around the world. Furthermore, because of huge enhancements in innovation, the further developed and modern cell phone is presented and propelled consistently. The cellphone has been profoundly acknowledged by a great many people far and wide, particularly among youthful grown-up buyers. According to research by Mafia and Blas, the user’s dependency on a smartphone is positively influencing the purchases made by the users in the future (Mafé & Blas, 2006).

Education:

Every phase of development has changed human life with a new style. But the advancement time in the youth was the most important part of human development. The period between childhood and teenage is the most serious time and the most frustrating time of a person’s life. During this time they pick and adopt things that can’t be separated from their lives even their whole life. In this modern technological world, at this sensitive age, most students got addicted to the use of mobile phones and computers for using the internet. This affects their life, health, and studies. Students waste their time using cell phones, and this really affects their studies. Also, in this modern world, schools, and colleges are forcing students towards the internet and technology, by providing them the lectures on the internet, e-books, online mock tests, online exams, research, and other assignments on a computer. This also provides a lot of information and technical knowledge to students and they can connect themself to the world through the internet. But there are most of the students got addicted to these devices and started using the internet most of the time. They should healthily use the internet, and a healthy way of using the internet means using it for a specific time and purpose and after that closing it. It does not use in a way that a student just started playing games all the time and uses social media apps and sites. All these social media sites are also for social relationships and promotions, but unfortunately, students are doing wrong with it (Ayaz & Karatas, 2016).

According to a news published by the E Campus News, a poll of Press-mtvU shows that more students are dependent on mobile phones and computers. 57% of the students said that without computers and smartphones, they will be more depressed and their life will be more difficult, and only twenty-five percent of students said it will be a relief with these technologies (REPORTS, 2010).

According to a report published by the International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 45% of students’ dependency on gadgets is very high. And all these students usually belong to average or below-average families, they are totally dependent on gadgets and these are seriously affecting their health and education. And to reduce this dependency, health awareness programs should be made and students should be aware of the effects of these gadgets on their health. This information and awareness can be provided through lectures, special health seminars, and by adding this topic to their courses. Government and other stakeholders should take responsibility for this (Kumar & Sherkhane, 2018).

References

Ayaz, M. F., & Karatas, K. (2016). Examining the level of internet addiction of adolescents in terms of various variables. World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues, 8(3), 2-6. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1142241.pdf

Baloch, F. (2014, march 23). Technology adoption : Smarter phones to become the need of the hour. Retrieved from The Express Tribune: https://tribune.com.pk/story/686305/technology-adoption/

Kumar, A. K., & Sherkhane, M. S. (2018, july 10). Assessment of gadgets addiction and its impact on health among undergratuates. (Dr. Mayur S. Sherkhane, Ed.) Assessment of gadgets addiction and its impact on health among undergratuates, 5(8), 1-5. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20183109

Mafé, C. R., & Blas, S. S. (2006). Explaining Internet dependency. An exploratory study of future purchase intention of Spanish Internet users, 6(4), 380-97. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/10662240610690016

Montano, C. F., Lundmark, M., & Mähr, W. (2011). Control vs Convenience. Critical Factors of Smart Homes, 1-4.

Piyare, R., & Lee, S. R. (2013, july). Smart Home. Control and Monitoring System Using Smart Phone, 1-6. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250306737_Smart_Home-Control_and_Monitoring_System_Using_Smart_Phone

REPORTS, S. A. (2010, October 8). Students dependent on technology—for better or worse. Students dependent on technology—for better or worse. Cumberland, Marlyand, Washington D-C: E campus News.

Seilhamer, R., Chen, B., Bauer, S., Salter, A., & Bennett, L. (2018). Changing Mobile Learning Practices: A Multiyear Study 2012–2016. Educause Review.

SMITH, A. (2011). The Internet and Campaign 2010. PEW Research Center.

Suki, N. M. (2013, january). The influence of social needs, social influences and convenience. Students’ dependence on smart phones, 3(2), 3-10. doi:DOI: 10.1108/10650741311306309

Sultan, M., & Nabil, K. (2016). Smart to Smarter. Smart Home Systems, 1-6. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/18c1/b2bcb167e4f52d5c1dddfecbff6881d4357b.pdf

Sutton, B. (2013). How technology effects society. The Effects of Technology in Society and Education, 5-25. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1196&context=ehd_theses

Weiser, M. (1991). The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American Ubicomp Paper.

 

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