スマホ (Smartphone)

One of the most amazing advances in technology is the smartphone. Almost a miracle from what we had before, the smartphone has surpassed the wallet for being a handy device that contains anything anyone ever needs: it's better than the computer because it's so compact, it's better than a watch because it can do other things, and it's better than a wallet because it's living: it has up to date, live information. Almost everyone in working society has one now, yet there's one thing it can't do: clean itself/ repair itself. I assert, therefore, that smartphones get the Unheralded Player Award in our lives: they give us the most utility in our lives, yet we treat them the worst, worse than our pets, worse than tables (they get a scrub at our family every time we use them). 

I crash my cellphone constantly: I drop it on the floor, I scratch the surface with keys, I keep it in my pocket when I play dodgeball allowing it to thump against the ground, I'm very rough to the device that I use all the time. It's really counterintuitive, we're really careful with our laptops and computers in scrubbing them down and keeping them in a safe place, but cell phones' lives are put at risk every day, from all the times one pulls it out of their pocket/purse, uses them to text while walking, etc. Cell phones also don't get washed very often: we're putting our fingers and hands all over them, but I for one don't wash them more than once a day, and I use the touchscreen all the time after eating, etc., etc., without washing my hands (I should probably start doing so now). A German study found that smart phone surfaces tend to have on average 18 times the amount of germs that toilet bowls have. Given the dirty things that happen in my office bathroom (and that I've chronicled), that's saying something 

Smartphones cause me to be eternally connected: there's no break from connectivity, to something on my phone. Even on a plane, I can use the phone's various internet-free options: check the Japanese dictionary, listen to music, play games. And because of that, I touch it constantly, always check something, always swipe, always adjust the volume. It's probably time I started taking care of it more often.