No other electronic device has perhaps impacted life more than the smartphone has done. When the earliest version of cell phone came to the market for public use, neither its size and cost was appealing. Also it had limitations. Gradually the size and cost of the wonder gadget shrank and more people could now afford it. Then the smaller the handset was, the better it was. An advertisement on the tiniest of cell phone made the message loud and clear. It showed a beautiful girl facing a handsome guy on a nearby table in a restaurant making an appointment for dating. The man thought, it was he whom she addressed. He felt flattered and readily accepted the proposal and got up to meet her but the twist to the scene comes when the woman says 'bye' on her cell phone that was so long invisible in her palm. The guy gets snubbed.
Then there came what can be called a light year leap in the device now known as a smartphone. It is not only a cell phone but a mini computer with the facilities of a television. It can be used for all three purposes even in outdoor locations. There is the facility of enjoying sports and other events live on its small screen. Online classes and meetings can be held courtesy of this device. During lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic, its contribution was immeasurable. It did another nice job by connecting friends or relatives who were not in touch for long. Different social sites made it happen.
There is no end to the benefits it has brought for people in general. But all scientific and technological inventions have their downsides, so does this smartphone. This miracle device is subject to misuse and abuse. What can be a blessing has also the potential to be a curse. In this age of digitisation, it is the latter that has now become an overriding concern for social scientists and people mindful of well-being of people.
Here is a device that brings the colourful, make-believe world or better say, virtual world on to one's finger tip. Like the swarms of information and scholarly reading materials, the more appealing ---often prurient and explicit ---visual contents come flooding on the screen. Only few sane heads can resist the appeal. Online games, not apparently as poisonous as pornography, can be even more lethal. How devastating those can be was highlighted by one such game called 'Blue Whale' which led to suicide by young gamers across the world, not excluding Bangladesh. It was a series of 50-day tasks the gamers had to perform under the instruction of an administrator.
What is most concerning is that not only the youths of a population but also the elders and even children are falling prey to the internet addiction courtesy of smartphones. Globally, one in three internet users is a child and in every half second, a child is getting freshly connected to the internet, according to the Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund). The UN sister concern lamented in 2017 that little is done to ensure children's access to safe contents. No progress has been made in this regard so far, rather it has aggravated. If their access to undesirable contents cannot be arrested, there is every chance of developing psychological problem by them and in some cases may lead to the world of crimes.
With the screen time rising for people of all ages, they are developing physical problems here as well. Experts have come to the conclusion that today more people with eye complications come to ophthalmologists in Bangladesh. There are other physical problems smartphone or computer users suffer from overuse of the devices. Headache, neck pain, hearing problem and reduction of chromosome count in semen have been reported.
The physical problems apart, the greatest danger is on the psychological front. Addiction to online contents seriously impact a person's normal life. Regularity and routine works become the first casualty. Then it seriously affects the real-world interactions. That is the greatest loss one suffers--- and unwittingly. At times it gives the impression that the human race is becoming sick to the point where they will fail to make inter-personal communications and rather prefer only virtual interactions. Before this happens let the policymakers have a grip on the central online providers to compel them not to disseminate unwanted and undesirable contents on the screen.