‘Tis the season for a smartphone, or is it?

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Some BYU students opt to not have smartphones because of finances and other factors. (Photo by Ari Davis.)
Some BYU students opt to not have smartphones because of finances and other factors. (Photo by Ari Davis.)

During this season of gift-giving, there is much buzz about new upgrades in the cell phone world. Despite all of the talk on the street, many students still opt to use their less intelligent phones rather than upgrading to the world of the smartphone.

Some students find that constantly using a smartphones has a negative impact on students’ lives. Andrew Gee, a 25-year-old student from South Salt Lake, is one such student who feels this way.

“I think, for some, their quality of life would go up without (a smartphone) because they start to live in their phone and miss out on the world around them,” Gee said.

The financial commitments of owning a smartphone, though they are getting more affordable, still tend to be quite a bit more expensive compared to conventional flip phones.

“There are a lot of other really good phones out there that are probably just as good and cheaper then the smart phone,” Gee said. “When I grew up all we got for Christmas was new socks and cold cereal, so the idea of getting an iPhone for Christmas has really never entered my mind.”

For international students, smartphones offer a cheaper alternative to the expensive cost of calling home. Such is the case for Christopher Lew, 23, a biochemistry major from Hong Kong.

“I would say it’s increased my convenience,” Lew said. “I can call and text home using apps over data instead of relying on Skype since long distance is expensive.”

University students benefit less from smartphones than they might think, Jared Halpin, 24, an economics major from Powhatan, Va., said.

“Being on campus, you’re always at most a few hundred feet away from a computer, so smartphones aren’t that big of a change,” Halpin said.

Even though smartphones may seem like a big deal to many of us, opinions vary as to whether they are that big of a deal or not. With the average college student not being able to go more than 10 minutes without checking their phone, smartphones have added to quality of life in some manner, be it for good or for bad.

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