I-phone and Android cell phone have been all the rage in recent years. Billions of people in the whole world are obsessed by these electronic gadgets— they are fashionable, multifunctional and interactive. These unique features make them irresistible to nearly all young people in Hong Kong. They become huge fanatic of these attractive accessories. Some people claim that “electronic gadgets are necessary evil.” Well, it really sounds so right when we see how crazy these teenagers are to catch up with these gadgets. However, is it really that necessary?
What are “electronic gadgets” here referring to are the trendy electronic products like cell phone, PDA, notebook or even netbook. They are not washing machines, air-conditioner, cooker and vacuum cleaner, which are necessary helping hands in our daily life. So, obviously these gadgets are not an essential element in our life. Usually, they only provide entertainment, like music, movies and games, and give the users a sense of possession— to cater for their desire. These two offers primarily do not affect our life so much. Though the entertainment given by these fashionable gadgets does occasionally give the users a bit of joy while indulging into the digital world, finally when coming back to reality, is it really important to their life? The answer is obvious, not to mention how fulfilling the lust of possession can improve our quality of life. Electronic gadgets are thus not necessary to our life.
Moreover, even if these trendy products are sometimes useful for emergency like calling 999, they do have an evil side, especially for the youngsters. Remember the announcement of the first I-phone by Apple a year ago? A lot of Hong Kong teenagers were simply in love with this gadget and flooded into mobile phone stores to get one for themselves. They simply do not mind using up all their pocket money when it comes to electronic gadgets. And don’t forget some of them even queued outside the mobile phone stores for a whole day in the hope of being the first lucky person in Hong Kong who got the phone. Moreover, they waste a lot of time discussing the functions their gadgets offer and when to get a new one. It seems that they are living for these technological tools. Because of this, they cannot use their time well and do something more meaningful, for example, studying, spending time with family, taking a rest, etc. Eventually they downgrade their quality of life.
Apart from the waste of time and money, their obsession in the heated gadget trend also causes some physical and psychological drawbacks. First of all, the over-indulgence in playing with the gadgets reduces their time of getting rest. Some youngsters cannot sleep unless they have checked their facebook accounts via their I-phones. Next, in the use of these electronic gadgets, a lot of repeating finger pressing action is required. There has been already a number of research done on the overuse of I-phone showing that, especially for women, people who overuse their I-phone encounter higher chance of getting their nerves in hand and arm damaged.
How about the psychological disadvantages? As people plunge themselves into the I-phone world or Android world, when coming back to reality, they simply cannot stop thinking about it. While traveling to work, they take it out. While waiting for lunch to be served, they take it out. They become over-reliant on the gadget and feel uncomfortable for not looking at it for even 5 minutes. Their lives get intruded by these gadgets.
Finally, I would rather say “electronic gadgets are an unnecessary evil”. They cannot improve our lives but cause troubles instead. Is it worthy to spend all our time and money just for occasional gratification? I suggest turning off the I-phone and going back to reality and doing something more real and meaningful.