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How Have Smartphones Transformed The Modern Society: A Sociological Perspective

Smartphones have transformed modern society from a sociological perspective. They have become integral to daily life and impacted individuals and culture. While smartphones have integrated society by connecting people across differences, they have also led to new "micro-cultures" and issues like distraction. Smartphones have influenced business, education, health, and social life both positively and negatively. Sociological views of thinkers like Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim can provide frameworks for understanding smartphones' role in social order, economics, and function within society.

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112 views4 pages

How Have Smartphones Transformed The Modern Society: A Sociological Perspective

Smartphones have transformed modern society from a sociological perspective. They have become integral to daily life and impacted individuals and culture. While smartphones have integrated society by connecting people across differences, they have also led to new "micro-cultures" and issues like distraction. Smartphones have influenced business, education, health, and social life both positively and negatively. Sociological views of thinkers like Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim can provide frameworks for understanding smartphones' role in social order, economics, and function within society.

Uploaded by

kunal mehto
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HOW HAVE SMARTPHONES TRANSFORMED THE MODERN

SOCIETY: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

In the modern epoch of transgressing Communication and technological


advancements, Smartphones have played a critical role in transfiguring the
contemporary society. Smartphones play a crucial role in the daily routine of an
individual and have become a widely acknowledged consumer artefact. Not only do
Smartphones serve the individual motives of a human, but also act as a social
artefacts. But smartphones are as much as a boon as bane. In this article, I will try to
analyse the revolution brought in by the Smartphones in the modern era with a
sociological outlook.

SMARTPHONES: AN APPARATUS OF MODERNISATION

In the words of Smelser, Modernisation is termed as, “Modernisation is a complex set


of changes that place almost in every part of society as it attempts to be industrialised.
Modernisation involves on going changes in a society’s economy, politics, education,
traditions and religion.”

Satish Deshpande in his essay, “Modernisation”, exclusively explains the process of


Industrialization of economy. In India, the process of Industrialization surfaced in the
Colonial rule as an attempt to build a new-fangled society. Since then, Indian markets
have shown a rapid and expeditious growth and has always been an attraction for
latest technological headways. India has grown to be a humungous market for
Smartphones in the last two decades.

Smartphone as a modern tool has acquired tremendous popularity among the masses
of all the age groups. The features instilled in it has lured the attention of the teenagers
and have become an integral and indispensable part of their lives. Smartphones have
influenced almost every walk of human life. Behaviour of the individual and their
cultural norms have been drastically impacted by the smartphone technology.
Smartphones have impacted the society both on a positive and negative note. On one
hand, Smartphones have integrated the society, trying to remove all the differences
among different human races, on the other hand it has led to the formation of various
micro-cultures by different individuals which is considered menacing for a society.
Smartphones have left a footprint on different dimensions of a society such as
business, health, education and social life. Mobile phones have proved to be both a
boon and bane for such dimensions. To say, Smartphones have dug up new facets of
business. Not only has it benefitted various merchants of an industry, but has even
benefitted the companies developing software applications. Applications like
Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram have integrated individuals from different
societies having various social backgrounds. But on contrary side, it has also effected
the already established market of PCs. Smartphones have extensively contributed in
introducing various means for the knowledge lovers to gain endless knowledge. As
internet has become an integral part of the life of the students and teenagers to search
for information, smartphones provide the platform to the students to access Internet
from any corner of the world with ease. The gross use of Internet on smartphones
have surpassed the use of Internet via fixed line service. But with the features
bestowed by the smartphones to integrate and minimise the world through a text,
students tend to disgress from the central use and tend to engross themselves in rather
texting their mates, watching TV, play online games or accessing social networking
websites. Apart from these, Smartphones also helps an individual to access health
related services. Smartphones today are equipped with applications which helps us to
track our daily exercise, diet, blood pressure and calories burnt. Moreover, apps now-
a-days are available to organise and manage our prescriptions or to prescribe other
treatment options of medication. But checking medication options on one’s
smartphones regularly, detaches him from personal interactions with the doctor,
which may prove to be dangerous for one’s health. Moreover, relying on one’s
smartphone more than what is required may render one’s eyesight poor. This
generally happens in kids and students of young age who tend to addict themselves to
the online games available in the smartphones with a single touch or click.

SOCIAL IMPACT OF A SMARTPHONE

Smartphones have drastically and radically transformed the social life of the humans.
Social life of an individual is the most effected domain by a smartphone. It has tried to
integrate and bring together people from different social backgrounds and people of
different sects, belonging to different geographical areas, practising different religions
etc.
With a regular increase in the population of elderly people and people with special
needs,

SMARTPHONES VIEWED WITH A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE-

Different aspects and outlooks of various Sociologists can be applied to scrutinize the
changes brought by the Smartphones in the contemporary society. Distinct
sociologists have applied numerous methods to study society and its elements. In the
sub section we will try to examine the ideas propounded by them-

The first being the father of this social science August Compte. August Compte
advocated the idea that the locus of every Sociologists’ study should be “Order and
Change”. He propounded the principles of Social Static which says that the basic
structure of a society should remain undisturbed and Social Dynamics which
highlights the elements of the society which allows social development in the society.
Adhering to the ideology of Compte, Smartphones can be placed under the ambit of
Social Dynamic element, as they assist social development in a society leaving the
social order of the society undisturbed.

Second being Karl Marx, who advocated the idea that structure of the society is
influenced by how its economy is organised. The focal point of Karl Marx’s
arguments remained the economic effect of a social element. Karl Marx would view
Smartphones as a tool that would influence an economy’s prosperity. Moreover, he
would classify the society in two parts namely the bourgeoisie and proletarians on the
basis of the affordability of an individual. For Example, the owner of an iPhone may
be termed as a bourgeois as opposed to an owner of a Nokia handset who may be
called as a proletarian.

The last being Emile Durkheim, who believed in scientific study of the society as a
whole. He defined the term “Function” as a consequence that an element of society
produces in order to maintain the social system. He explained that every social
element existing in the society has a function to serve. So, Emile Durkheim would
always view Smartphones as a social element that has a function to serve in the
society. For example, Smartphones serve the function of integration and a means of
instant communication with anyone in any corner of the world.
Compiling various outlooks of distinct sociologists, Smartphones can be viewed as a
social element that serves various motives in the contemporary society. Smartphones
have a notable and sizeable effect on the society and other aspects of the life.

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