Humans have always used technology to improve their lives. From the cave people that harnessed fire for warmth, light, and cooking to the industrialists that harnessed water and steam to drive large machines to speed up manufacturing.
We’ve never stopped innovating, creating the computer, the internet, and eventually the smartphone. These three inventions have arguably had the biggest impact on the way we live than almost anything else in the last century.
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More recently, the biggest changes have come from the smartphone. Here are some of the biggest ways they’ve altered our lives.
Communication
It may seem obvious that smartphones have changed the way we communicate, but there’s much more to it than you may originally think about. Of course, video calling with friends around the world has never been easier thanks to smartphones, but they’ve made sending text-based communications much easier too.
Before smartphones, we typed out texts on physical keypads, often having to press each key several times to get the letter we wanted. This was time-consuming and burdensome, so we developed a new language to reduce the number of keypresses we needed.
So instead of typing out “What time do you want to meet tonight?”, you could save your fingers with the shorter version “wt tym do u wnt 2 meet 2nite?”. Dropping vowels, swapping letters, and even using numbers kept keypresses to a minimum while (usually) still being understandable for the recipient.
It also had the added benefit of keeping an SMS under the 140-character limit, so we didn’t have to pay for two messages.
But with QWERTY keyboards and autocorrect, there was no longer a need for this new language. Instant messaging apps had no character limit and it became easier to use full words again.
Entertainment
Smartphones place entertainment at our fingertips, giving us almost instant access to everything from books to movies and from music to games.
For watching TV shows and films, smartphones made the experience much less burdensome than before as we don’t need to sit in the only room that has a TV (or even be at home) to watch our favourite content.
Smartphones have also made playing games much easier. Players no longer need to have a pricey games console or a computer to enjoy this interactive content.
Instead, they just need to whip out their phone, tap an app, and start playing. Many games you can find on a smartphone can still be played on a computer too, popular online video slots can be accessed through a web browser, as can virtual pool and casual puzzle games.
However, the convenience of the smaller form factor makes playing them from a mobile device much more popular.
Shopping
Computers and the internet made it easy for us to buy goods and services online, but smartphones completely revolutionised e-commerce again. Consumers can now compare prices while they’re out in a brick-and-mortar store by scanning a product’s barcode or even taking a photo of the item.
This allows them to see if they can find it cheaper elsewhere and even buy it right there and then from their smartphone.
Smartphones have taken away much of the friction of e-commerce. With payment methods like Google Pay and Apple Pay, it’s possible to scroll through a list of new outfits while you watch TV, select the one you want, and pay in just a couple of taps, all without the need to enter card details or get up from your comfy position.
Banking
In many countries, bank branches are closing at a rapid rate. In early 2021, Santander announced it was closing 111 more of its UK branches, bringing its total of closed properties to 470 since 2015.
The reason is mainly down to the fact that many of us no longer need to visit our branch to get things done.
Mobile banking lets us check our transactions and make payments on the go. In some countries, it’s now even possible to scan a cheque with your smartphone’s camera to deposit it into your account.
Faced with declined footfall, banks can no longer justify such large networks of branches, so are choosing to close hundreds of branches to save money.
In Nigeria, smartphones are allowing some people to open a bank account for the first time, helping to bridge the wealth gap in many countries. Mobile money services like PagaTech have been praised for promoting financial inclusion to their more than five million subscribers.
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