When speaking to the older generations we hear”Back in my Day” quite a lot. The funny thing is I find myself saying a little more than I should be. I am only 25 and a lot of the things I grew up with feel like the stone age now. I always thought I would hear myself saying those words much later in life. But back when I was a kid an actual smartphone did not exist. Where I lived you saw more candlestick phones and people writing letters to each other. Sure we had the bag phones and later on the little flip phones. But for the most part, it was landlines and that was it.
According to review42.com in 2019, there were about 5.11 billion unique mobile users, about 2.71 billion of those are smart phone users. That is crazy to think how in just some many years we have gone from the flip phone to everyone having a little computer in their pocket. On it has the world at our disposable, anything we can think of we can pretty much make possible or find out how to. Now put this in the Diffusion of Innovations I believe it has taken me a while but I believe I have gone through all the phases.
I began my knowledge when I was young and understanding how it went from having some spare change in your pocket to use a payphone to now being able to do a lot on a little device. It always seems too good to be true with the people in our area. As time marched on and the iPods began to be a tough screen like a smartphone it was hard to resist. I had a flip phone for texting and an iPod touch for all social media aspects from my Junior year in high school till after my first year of college. It did not take much to persuade me. It sure really did help to have a phone that I could do everything on, I did not even need any wifi if I was out and about. But the problem is which mobile service did I want to use. Not to mention this thing was going to cost me monthly bills. So the pros and cons were laid out on the table.
Having a cellphone did make everyday life a lot easier than the rest. I did not have to carry two items with me. I was able to stay well connected with my family and friends. Plus keep up on current events, because we know that is important. Implementation was not hard to see moving forward. Even my coworkers said that it would say you time and money. What a big help they were when it comes to buying a cellphone. I will confess though I usually take my time with decisions like this. I like to let the idea sink in and have the right feeling moment. There is no rush when it comes to something like this. I have lived without one my entire life. Finally, after much consideration and debate at the age of 20 I ended up going out and purchasing my first smartphone and the service provider I chose was straight talk. To this day I still am with the same provider. However, I have had to get a new phone every so often. But all in all, I believe it was worth the risk and that was my confirmation.
Metev, Dennis. 11/21/20. “39+ Smartphone Statistics You Should Know” https://review42.com/smartphone-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%205.11%20billion%20unique,billion%20of%20them%20use%20smartphones.&text=100%20million%20people%20have%20started,smartphone%20users%20worldwide%20in%202020.