The first smartphone was released in 1992. By the year 2022 there may be as many as 3 billion smartphones in the world. The use of smartphones is decreasing our collective intelligence because we are reliant on the technology and not our minds. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Smartphone technology has been around for well over two decades; within a few years, about a third of the world’s population would own and operate one of these devices. Even though this technology offers some level of convenience to all its users, there are, however, concerns about its negative impact on the intellectual ability of people-young and old alike. In this essay, I will discuss the downside of smart handheld technology on the human mind. Firstly, phones with platform software application have the capacity to cause sleep deficiency and with loss of sleep comes a reduced cognitive intelligence (IQ), this, in turn, gives rise to a dull mind that lacks the ability to birth innovative ideas. Individuals with low intellect, for instance, are known to have their phones constantly with them, lacking the inability to be alone within themselves; as such, they are unable to activate the meditative power of their minds; in addition, this category of individuals are not great achievers who can generate award-winning inventions. We can maintain a high intellectual might by having a balanced view of smartphone usage; this is key if we want our reasoning faculties to operate within the threshold of attaining success. Secondly, we now live in an era where people have a distorted view of socializing as intelligent beings, why? The reason is not farfetched-smartphones are now more valued companions than people around us. A pathetic situation I must admit! A common practice today is seeing people of all demography bury their faces on their mobile device, not wanting to engage in meaningful interaction with the closest person by them. For example, I and my husband have become a victim of such a situation; rather than talk about how our day at work went, you see us with our hands and faces glued to our phones. As a matter of fact, we started drifting apart without even knowing. In general, humans are gradually losing the innate desire and ability to strike intelligent conversation; of course, we owe this anomaly in behaviour to a high reliance on smart mobile devices-which has become the first place in our day-to-day activities. Despite the fact that modern chipsets have become useful to man in some invaluable ways; its usage, however, has in several ways negatively influenced the faculty of reasoning of many. The dangers of losing our minds to smartphones should not be overlooked, a conscious effort is needed to strike a balance to achieve this, we need our minds to work at its best!