Mobile Phones, Good or Bad

 

Mobile Phones, Good or Bad

 

I recently reposted on LinkedIn a video made by Forrest + Schlage, called 'Like and Follow' (Link below) describing in a very simple way the addiction some kids may have towards smartphones. A friend of mine reacted quickly, asking if I was mad, working for a mobile company and all...

Well, I don't see the contradiction here and hope that my humble point of view below will inform or mildly entertain.

To the risk of disappointing some, a brief answer to the question would be 'hard to say'. Let's consider the pros and cons, starting with the obvious

It's good

Well, it helps you do more. The phone is like a digital swiss army knife with 400 blades (I mean, I have about 400 apps in my phone) in your pocket. There's very little I cannot do with it, connected or not to the mobile network.

At a very basic level, it 'connects people', for those who were familiar with Nokia phones. it is still true today, and the ways to engage with people have multiplied over the years with the development of social platforms, from Meta to TikTok and Tinder.

Some say ultra-low cost phones bridge the digital divide, helping many to get out of poverty. It is a wonderful tool for education purposes. My sons and I use Duolingo to learn new languages. It helps you be more productive, more reactive, stay on top of things at all times.

It's also an entertaining device, the mobile gaming industry is huge now, and who doesn't play on a phone to zone out for a few minutes, relax during uncomfortable commute...It might also have become the primary device to listen to music.

It may positively affect your health, the apps and the tech available in your phone may prevent disease, injuries, may contribute to your mental wellbeing, and certainly can help you stay in shape, fit or even train you to become a world class athlete.

Some studies are showing that Gen Zs, also called 'digital natives' tend to be more pragmatic and analytical than previous generations, which presumably is a good thing.

Lastly, it's also becoming a digital wallet to the broadest extent possible, as we see services offering 'Buy Now Pay Later' schemes which you can apply to from the phones. The phone is a gateway to make some money as well through marketplaces. The rise of crypto-currency will partly have to happen from a phone.

Obviously, many people live off the mobile industry, with its huge value chain (myself included), it creates jobs and value. Have a look at the size of the tech industry in the US, China or South Korea, which depends directly or indirectly from mobile phones.

And...It's bad too

Well, the above is all good and fine, except...

People living in developed economies suffer from loneliness and in extreme cases depression. Longitudinal research suggests that passive and prolonged consumption of content on social platform can lead to 'unhappiness' and worse. See the Financial Times' article H and S 's related post.

Many of us spend 4 to 5 hours a day on a phone, most of which could have been used to improve some productivity, and nurturing meaningful relationships. Using a phone distracts and constant notifications erodes over time one's ability to focus and memorize.

Old studies have pointed out that people tend to lose empathy as they get further removed from each other - let's say there is now a screen between you and me, and all the behavioral understanding gets lost while communicating, which is arguably a considerable threat to the foundation of our society.

In the course of human history, never have we been able to access so much information about everything and anything. However, we tend to get our daily news in places that reinforces our views of the world, in a sort of 'echo chamber'. We are well aware of the millions poured into disinformation campaigns by corporations and a few countries, creating in increasing polarized perception of the world, and reducing trust in institutions and science (think Climate Change for instance).

Privacy is a concern too. In the heydays of television, corporations wanting to advertise their products didn't know much about the families sitting in a sofa looking at their screen at a particular time of the day. It's tempting to say that a few companies out there know more about you than you may know about yourself. Mobile advertising is massive. And, in case of some 'force majeure', governments could access personal information and...well, track you down easily.

What about kids? My 8 months old baby is going nuts if given the chance to hold a smartphone with a screen on. He can swipe up and down, left and right with his finger, but he cannot hold a pen. My other sons live and breathe through their phone, and it's hard to enforce a habit at home where phones are not used and 'real life interactions' happen naturally. Quite sensibly though, owning a phone was a way for them to 'belong' and converse with their friends.

I can't finish this short section without thinking about sustainability. Phones are NOT carbon friendly: they're hard to recycle (incl. refurbishing). Manufacturing phones requires extracting rare earth materials by suppliers who may not be concerned by basic 'corporate responsibility' (I am trying to find a good euphemism here). Granted, there are efforts to change this, but a bitter critic would say that for now, it's just 'green washing'.

All of the above is leading to some, certainly in my network of friends and colleagues, to go 'back to basics' and buy a sturdy little phone, like the Nokia's of old. Many things that can be done on a phone can also be done by other devices, such as a laptop, which may lead to some sort of task specialization. As long as there is meaningful integration within your ecosystem, this can work well. And that way, some will feel calmer, more balanced, and may lead a more private life while connecting with those that matter.

What to do then?

Well phones are just a tool: depending on how they're used, they can be good or bad. Education is key, starting by creating some awareness. To some extent monitoring our usage requires discipline and, in the words of  , [when asked about the iPhone and how it's changed his life ten years on] It has made me incredibly productive and has changed the world, from how I shop, how I travel, how I message people and communicate - every single aspect of my life has changed because of it. And, even more so, it has changed how my kids are growing up compared to how I and my wife grew up. And sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes that's a bad thing - and it requires all of us to make the proper changes in our lives to make sure we don't lose the analogue portion of our life and we don't just stay digital and mobile all the time.

But this is also an ecosystem issue, and parents, smartphone manufacturers, regulatory bodies and to some extent governments could do more. France is quite active on this front : a law is about to pass preventing parent from oversharing pictures of their kids (on average, kids below 13 years old have about 1,300 pictures shared on the internet, many of which fall into the wrong hands, or eyeballs).

The quest for purpose : as a company, launching the next phone shouldn't be about focusing on catch up or incremental features, e.g. better camera, better battery, better sensors, etc. It should be more about developing better experiences in line with a clear purpose, inspirational or not. Without staying too close to the mobile industry, think of Nike. On the whole, one could expect more good to come out of electronic devices if every function of a brand (procurement, marketing, operations, etc...) was able to keep an eye on its devices' purpose. This is of course particularly true for product planning.

The pace of change : What's interesting to factor in this discussion is the pace at which law and regulations change versus the pace at which tech innovates. As it stands, the smartphone market has reached maturity, most of the innovation is now incremental, some of it arguably good or bad. Having worked in this industry for almost 20 years now (time flies...), I can say it has now become a space ripe for disruption, which large mobile companies may not see, in part because a CEO with a short-term mandate may not want to kill a cash cow, as it may sustain the livelihood of its employees and the satisfaction of its shareholders. It's also more difficult to see far ahead in an ever more fragmented, unstable, global environment. Will we have time to improve the value of a mobile phone before the next disruption replaces it?

Will there be a time where more good comes out of mobile phones? What do you think?

If you want to engage more on this fascinating topic, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

This doesn't engage nor reflect in any way my employer's view on the matter. All the information above is based on public materials.