We cannot imagine our lives without mobile phones. They have become so ubiquitous that it is impossible to find someone without this ‘magic device' in hand nowadays.

The history of mobile phones goes back to the 1970s when an American engineer named Martin Cooper came up with the idea of developing a handheld cellular phone. The phones developed based on his idea hit the markets in 1983. Thus Martin Cooper came to be known as the ‘’ father of the (hand held) cell phone’’. These Mobile phones are often referred to as 0 G or Zero Generation mobile phones. The weight of the phone invented by Cooper was an unbelievable 1.1 KG. Following this, engineers from eleven European countries came together to develop a Europe wide digital cellular phone system. This led to the invention of NOKIA 3310. This phone was phenomenally successful.

The first commercially available camera phone Sharp J-SHO4 was launched in November, 2000 in Japan. In 2003, the 3G standard began to be adopted world-wide, paving way to the rise of smart phones.  3 G services was launched. In 2008, the first Android phone, T-Mobile G1, was launched . Towards the end of the first decade of the second millennium 3G had been replaced by 4G. In 2009, O2 publicly announced that it had successfully demonstrated a 4G connection using six LTE masts in slough, UK.  WhatsApp, one of the most widely used apps was also launched in the same year. Soon, the world was to witness the biggest migration ever to occur in its history: billions of people flocked into ‘digital caves’ such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube and many more.

Mobile phones have become our inseparable companions. They help us in so many ways. For instance, though the Covid-19 pandemic has forced governments all over the world to shut down schools, colleges and offices, thanks to smartphones, most people are still able to study and work from home. They also help us to keep in touch with our near and dear ones however far they are.

But mobile phones have several disadvantages as well. It is very easy to get addicted to mobile phones. Very often people, especially young people, spent hours and hours on their smartphones. They waste so much time which could have been used for some useful purposes. Moreover, too much exposure to the light emitted from the screens of smartphones can cause irreparable damage to eyes. Those who are addicted to smartphones, as per some studies, suffer from sleep deprivation too.

Smart phones are not going any where. They are only likely to get more sophisticated in the days, months and years to come. So it is important that we teach everyone, especially young people, to use mobile phones more wisely and responsibly. Let’s control these devices rather than the other way around.