The relationship between technology and the human brain have expanded throughout time. Cell phones are an example of improvement to the human brain because of the amount of brain activity being used. Having cell phones help brain activity by bringing our attention to what we use it for; this helped enhance research in schools, transportation and work. The majority of people in our generation who have phones could cause others to feel a variety of emotions. In classrooms, if we do not understand a topic, we could pull out our phones and search ideas up. Many forms of transportation has created apps to help their customers manage their time or prices to help them travel. Lastly, the work field has also reinforce technology to help communicate with employees, managers as well as customers.
Nowadays in our classrooms, we are expected to have an email address in order to receive either news from our teachers or from the school itself. Since technology has been expanding, cell phones are the one electronic we carry on a daily basis. Because of this, we are able to do research in class using the phone’s Internet. According to the newspaper article on LexisNexis, Cellphones in schools: Toys or Tools? Principals say they can be both, which explains varying rules on their use, it has been stated that “Parents and kids rely on it for communication. Some use it as their clock, camera, planner, entertainment system, news source and encyclopedia. The phone is only a tiny component of this high-tech palm-sized computer. Which is why schools eventually will be forced to rethink cell-phone rules.” Schools are now changing the way the rules are set up because of new advance technology as well as the idea of having a cell phone with you at all times helps both child and parent to keep in contact for emergencies or other purposes. Since child and parent aren’t with each other during these hours, parents would want to know where their kids could be or how their kid is doing without them. For the child, they could be in a position where fear could happen and need to call for an emergency; this goes for anyone who is in need for an emergency depending on the issue. Books and textbooks are now evolving into ebooks and PDFs which also could be used during school hours if a student can’t purchase the printed version. Due to this new way of reading, schools are bound to use electronics in their lessons. Our attention is usually focused upon our phones so if books are now online, we start to read more which can help us build up our learning. Also communication has become stronger since we are able to give any form of communication such as a number, social media site or an email to our classmates either for help or for what the homework was if you missed class.
Trying to get to one place to another in the city can become difficult so we usually take either the bus, train or car. Since trains can unawarely become delayed or if you are running late and need to know when to catch the bus, there are now apps for these things. Many other transportation systems also have apps such as Ubers, Taxis and airplanes on when they arrive as well as how much they pay. Cell phones help us know right there what to do when a train is postponed by looking for the nearest train available; same goes for buses. An interview with Destiny Perez has had her share in use of her cell phone and feels it depends on how we use our phones for transportation use. “They are useful because it could be used for emergencies such as what if you get lost and need someone to help or use it to help get directions,” Many teens/ young adults face these issues the majority of the time they need to travel to school or work. In order to get to school/work, we need to think and memorize frequently. We first need to think about time, what I mean is that we need to first ponder about how long will it take to reach our destination. Will there be delays? How long do I have to wait for the [insert transportation system] to get to this street? What if I am late? Well, this is where memorization comes in. We need to look at our phones then go to Google maps and figure out the approximate time. After that, our brain starts to rethink over and over what we researched and try haptic visualization.
Although transportation has its pros, there are cons to the use of phone on this. “The fact if someone is driving its not useful to use it [cell phones] while driving because that will distract them and it could lead to an accident.” (Perez 8) Using cell phones while we are in control of the type of transportation system such as driving, riding a bike, etc. can obviously cause some sort of mishap. Sometimes apps or websites on our phones can have malfunctions and can cause us to struggle finding an alternative to our destinations. Our attention is focused on our phones occasionally that we don’t look around us and never know if we are in danger by waiting for the bus, train or just crossing the street. “The people who are more willing to frequently engage in cellphone use are higher-risk drivers, independent of the phone. It’s not just a subtle difference with those willing to pick up the phone. This is a big difference.” (Rick 2) This demonstrates the idea of multitasking which can lead to many catastrophes. Lastly cell phones can cause us to be late to school or work by giving us wrong directions to where we need to go if we find another way to reach our location.
The work field are now requiring cell phones in order to be able to work because “technology today makes us have it mandatory.” (Gil 6) Since technology is advancing through our time, cell phones have also been starting to be apart of our daily lives. Marisol Gil has a mixed feeling about cell phones being a distraction in her work field, she says “It is actually a distraction when people allow it to be.” This meaning that phones can be useful at work, but it’s our choice to use it wisely or not get anything done. Although she says this, she feels cellphones “make us more savvy, which means it makes us more alert and aware.” Having a cellphone in the work field helps us with new ideas of how to communicate with customers, managers and employees. Depending on where you work, cellphones could be used differently for instance, working in retail. There are cellphones that have new ways to pay for your items as well as fast food areas. Many customers use a new technique of paying for their purchases by using their phones to help. There are now these devices you can install on your phone called the “card reader” which helps customers pay on their phone if you are doing online shopping.
These electronic devices might progress overtime if we let it to be. Maybe in the further future a new device might overthrow cell phones and our brains will start to adjust to that device. Our brains will become stronger due to the amount of attention we start producing towards our phones and using it in our daily lives.
Work Cited
- Lincoln Journal Star (Nebraska), August 31, 2009 Monday Correction Appended, THE (402); Pg. D1, 1579 words, ERIN ANDERSEN Lincoln Journal Star
- Nelson, Rick. “Drivers, Cell Phones, And Smart Cars.” EE: Evaluation Engineering 51.10 (2012): 4. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
- Perez, Destiny. Personal Interview. 24 Nov 2015
- Gil, Marisol. Personal Interview. 27. Nov 2015
