The drawbacks of mobile phone

The mobile phone is stimulating one of the most important technological revolutions in human
history. This article first presents impacts, challenges, and predictions of mobile phone use. It
first indicates that the impact of the mobile phone on society has been predominantly positive
while the mobile phone has certain negative attributes. It then discusses multiple ways to
overcome mobile technology challenges (e.g., new radio technologies and specialized devices
optimized for medical, educational, or “Internet of things” applications). The authors predict
that, in the two or three more generations, mobile phones use will have exciting advances to
achieve the full benefits, especially in the area of healthcare, education, industry, daily life,
learning, and collaborations, which will be more effective, productive, and creative.
The mobile phone is stimulating one of the most important technological revolutions in human
history. This statement is not hyperbole. There are more mobile phones in use today than there
are people, but measuring quantity alone trivializes the importance of the mobile phone to
those who rely on it. Surveys have shown that people would rather eat less than give up their
mobile phone. People who forget their phone at home will return to retrieve it but would elect
to move on without their wallet. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a mobile phone is an
integral part of a person, an extension of her or his personality.
And yet, the mobile phone revolution is just beginning. Simple “feature phones” have
contributed to lifting over a billion people out of severe poverty in Africa. Simple add-ons are
bringing professional medical treatment to remote villages in Mexico. In India, e-commerce is
raising the standard of living for millions. In developed countries, we are only beginning to
understand how much smartphones will improve our lives.
1 IMPACTS
By far, the greatest contribution to society of the mobile phone is in improved productivity.
People act more efficiently when they are connected, especially when they are
connected whenever, wherever, and to whomever they wish. Beyond that, the mobile phone is
an invaluable tool that can entertain, educate, improve safety, and add convenience to our
lives.
As with every disruptive technology, mobile phones have negative attributes as well. Perhaps
we first realized this in 1989 when mobile phones first rang in movie theaters. While some may
have been annoyed or angered, we were dismayed. Our abiding belief in the potential of the
mobile phone blinded us to the ways in which it could be antisocial. And, of course, ringing in a
movie theater or concert hall was not the only annoyance.
The first commercial portable mobile phones became available in October 1983. Why did it take
so long to discover their antisocial aspects? Initially, most mobile phones were wired into
automobiles. The only handheld units—and we use the word “handheld” loosely—were
Motorola DynaTACs, which weighed over a kilogram and were, for obvious reasons, called “the
brick.” People were unlikely to carry the DynaTAC into a concert hall. Since that cell phone sold
for $4,000, the equivalent of about $10,000 today, chances of even encountering one were
slim. In 1989, Motorola introduced the MicroTAC, a flip phone which by modern standards was
large, but at 12.3 oz was small enough to fit into a coat pocket. The MicroTAC was affordable
enough to become popular.
In the early days, the cost of a call was high: 50 cents a minute. In the U.S., customers paid for
incoming calls, making them reluctant to give out their cell phone number. As prices for service
fell, especially after the assignment of more channels in the early 1990s, incoming calls and
their related annoying alerts became more prominent. Consequently, smaller handheld units
and the slow reduction of usage charges started to change people's expectations—cellphones
were becoming even more useful than fixed phones. We started to see—or rather, hear—
phones in movie theaters and concert halls.
The mobile phone alone does not make people rude. Polite people learned to turn their ringers
off in the concert hall and to speak in muted voices in crowded areas. In Japan, for example,
using a mobile phone in a railway car will earn a sharp rebuke from the conductor. Society
ultimately learns how to accommodate disruptive technology, so we rarely hear phones ring at
the movies today.
All in all, the impact of the mobile phone on society has been predominantly positive. This
impact has occurred mostly with the two simplest mobile phone technologies: talk and text.
These simple activities have profoundly changed the lives of billions. One touching example is
that of a poor woman in a village in India who obtains microfinancing to buy a cell phone and
service. She then offers, at a nominal price, the use of her personal phone to farmers in her
village to call the neighboring villages to find the best markets for their produce. Everybody
wins! The woman, the farmers, and the customers who end up with fresher produce at better
prices.
We are especially sensitive to the gender issue that affects the future of the mobile phone as it
does everything else in our society. We know that most mobile phone and application
engineers are men. This imbalance has neglected women's sensibilities and needs regarding
phone design. In some developing countries, women often do not have access to the family
phone. We fervently hope that a more educated populace will realize that addressing women's
needs is not only socially responsible but profitable. As you will see in our predictions for the
future mobile phones and applications, they will have a critical role in solving gender-related
problems.
2 CHALLENGES
We are still in the early days of mobile phone development. Only a small fraction of the mobile
phone's potential has been unlocked. Services, especially Internet access, are too costly, as are
the phones themselves. Smartphones try to do all things for all people but do none optimally.
Mobile phones are designed as mass-market commodities without regard for the fact that
people are unique and that different people benefit from phones designed for their unique
needs.
Each of these deficiencies is being addressed in our society in the following ways:
 New radio technologies are increasing the capacity of existing systems and reducing
service costs.
 Specialized devices optimized for medical, educational, or “Internet of things”
applications are appearing each day.
 Applications are starting to appear that promise to revolutionize medicine, education,
and business.
 People are starting to collaborate in ways that were not even dreamt about 10 years
ago; the capacity of mobile-phone-enabled collaboration to topple governments has
already been demonstrated.
3 PREDICTIONS
We predict a world in which the mobile phone makes the most advanced medical technology
available to all, as it helps solve the dilemma of a healthcare system focused on curing diseases
rather than preventing them.
We predict a society in which mobile-phone-enhanced education occurs 24 hr a day
everywhere—not just in the classroom; in which students are educated in stimulating ways; in
which the knowledge of the world is available to all.
We predict an industrial society in which hierarchical organizations give way to collaborative
self-organized entities in continuous communications with one another.
We predict a technological revolution in which the wireless technologies we espouse become
either invisible, transparent, or intuitive, with the sole function of serving us as they make our
lives better, and hopefully simpler.
We predict a new education paradigm in which students wirelessly connected to the Internet
learn in the real world, and where the role of the teacher is elevated to counseling and
customizing the education of students.
Wireless technology, the mobile phone, and all its derivatives will not be the sole catalyst for
energizing these revolutionary advancements. Nor will wireless technology solve the social,
legal, and regulatory barriers that must be overcome. It is our fervent hope, however, that the
promise of a technological solution is so compelling that the bureaucrats and bigots will fall by
the wayside and lawyers will actually facilitate progress. We further point out that the first
phase of the wireless revolution took more than a human generation to evolve. It will take two
or three more generations to achieve the full benefits we predict. But progress, as you will
clearly observe in this journal, is already happening; it will be continuous and relentless, and
there will be incremental benefits all along the way.
Some readers may find our predictions overly optimistic. I urge those readers to dive into and
contribute to this Journal. We want you to become part of the revolution.
Finally, we cannot overemphasize the importance of the new form of collaboration the mobile
phone engenders. It is now possible for people to communicate with each other in numerous
ways, independent of location and time. Communications can be instantaneous or delayed.
People can talk, text, email, Tweet, post on Facebook, Instagram, and video conference cheaply
and conveniently. This is only the beginning. Most of these are crude, first-generation tools that
will evolve and integrate into powerful facilitators of efficiency and productivity. It is our
expectation and hope that this new journal of mobile-phone behavior will stimulate this
revolution by enhancing the collaborative process. The result will be a cascading explosion of
creativity that revolutionizes not only the mobile-phone industry but the way we do everything.