An approach to the concept of Mobile Society The Smartphone: its expansion, functions, uses, limits and risks

Abstract

The present study describes the wide expansion that the mobile phone has taken all over the world, its main technological functions, since the clock to the latest applications, as well as the functions of communication. On the other hand, analyzes the limitations and risks of its use, most notably the ease of creating addiction, especially among adolescents.

Overcoming the social consequences of the industrial revolution and postmodernism, we enter the so called Information Society, which many theorists have discussed  and  defined  in  terms  such  as  "global  village",  "cyberspace"  and  "telematic society". Perhaps the most complete approach is the one described by Manuel Castells in The Network Society, a hyper-connected society, with maximum physical mobility, interactive and instantaneous. It is the democratization of ideas and possibilities, the falling of the barriers.

The digital revolution has brought the invasion of New Communication Technologies (ICTs) in time’s record, especially the personal computer, the Internet and the mobile phone. The mobile is the most widely expanded device in the world, and its constant innovation makes it integrate many previous advances: the telephone, the internet, music,  video,  the radio,  TV  and  chat,  among  others.  A smartphone  not only  greatly facilitates the traditional functions of the phone, but it also offers a world of possibilities at a hand, which enormous effects on daily life.