​How smartphones have changed our lives

Just 15 years ago in order to make a phone call you needed a corded phone or pay phone which may not have always been easy to find. Now phones are always at hand and are easily carried in a pocket or handbag. Communicators or PDA’s used to be extremely expensive and were considered as luxury, but now smartphones with Internet access and broad functionality are sold at an affordable price. American agency eMarketer predicts that in 2018 every second mobile device user will own a smartphone. Soon smartphones will replace devices with a limited number of functions. Is it good or bad?

There can be no clear answer, but smartphones definitely make our lives more mobile. Ten years ago is was hard to imagine that a phone would replace photo and video cameras, but as early as in 2011 there was a glut of camera phones. Nowadays every 3rd smartphone easily outperforms cheap snapshot cameras and takes quality photos which can be printed out and placed into a photo frame or family photobook. The low cost of smartphones with good cameras has led people taking photos or filming videos at every major event. Some of them upload photos and videos to social networks, others want to save them as mementos. Back in the day musicians asked concert goers to take out lighters for a romantic song, now it is mobile phones holding the torch