Barzinezhad

Amir Barzinezhad
Ashley P. Marcum
English 111-FTJ 77 and 78
24 November 2015
Better Life with Computer, Smartphone and Internet
In new years, we have variety of devices and technologies in our hands. Technologies
have important effects in our lives from past to present, and they will have more effects in our
lives in the future. Technologies develop toward a better every day, because humans knowledge
gets better every second, so technologies move forward with humans knowledge progress.
These technologies play undeniable roles in our daily lives, and they have many impacts on
different aspects of our lives. In accordance with experts opinions, technologies have different
advantages and different disadvantages. Although these technologies bring us some advantages
and some disadvantages, we can take advantage of technologies and use them toward improving
our lives. Today, some of the most important technologies that we use for many purposes are
computers, smartphones and the Internet. What are the advantages and features of these
technologies, and how do these technologies improve our life style? How can we use these
technologies to organize our lives? In this essay, I will try to overview of the positive influences
of computers, smartphones, and the Internet in different aspects of our daily lives.
Not too many years ago, technologies were not available like today, and maybe we cant
imagine how the people did their daily tasks in different fields. Cyndi Giorgis and Nancy J.
Johnson in their article, Technology in our daily lives, point out, More often than not, we do
not question how technology simplifies, informs, and adds ease to our lives. With the coming
of technologies, the peoples life style changed completely, and the lives became easier. One of

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these indisputable technologies is the computer. With the invention of the computer, a new
revolution was created in technology. With the passage of time, the computer industry developed
rapidly, and the manufacturers of the computers produced new models every day. In recent years,
we have a variety of devices like PCs, laptops, notebooks and netbooks in our hands that these
devices play a big role in our lives. We can use the computers for different purposes. Before our
access to computers, it was too hard to manage and profile our different kinds of information. We
had lots of papers, documents and photos in our hands. Organizing all of them need much space
in our homes or offices; it had taken long time, and it had wasted our time. In addition to all
these problems, it was too hard to access our information when we need it. In the article, Dont
Fall Behind: Get Organized Once and For All, Karen Appold writes, Technology provides
different options, in addition to the traditional paper choices. With computers, we can save a
very large volume of various types of information; we can manage the information; we can
organize our homes or offices toward the efficient spaces, and we can access the information in a
short time. Paul Wicker in his article, Organizational skills and tools, notes, For real
flexibility in planning, a computer is indispensable. We cant ignore the role of the computers in
managing our tasks. With computers, we can access to different programs and software to
organize our daily tasks. For example, we can use different software to organize our contact lists
and to manage our meetings and appointments. Wicker states, Task and contact management
software uses a calendar to help organise contact details, meetings and carry out tasks by certain
deadlines. With computers, we can put deadlines and reminders for our tasks. Also, we can use
the office programs like Microsoft Word to type our writings, or we can use Microsoft Excel for
calculation. Wicker writes that office suites are groups of programmes which can help to fulfill
all the usual office tasks such as typing using a word processor, performing calculations using

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spreadsheets, making appointments using calendar, and keeping contact details using databases.
We can see how these programs can help us to organize our tasks and have an easier life. The
computers bring us many advantages in different fields. Today, most of our activities are dealing
with the computers. When you think, you see that computers have entered in all aspects of life
like career, studying, teaching, banking, business, driving and health care. The computers can
help us toward improvement of our lives.
Another technology that has created a huge change in our everyday life is the
smartphone. Smartphones are one kind of the phones that have special capabilities, and their
functions are almost similar to the computers. Bohyun Kim in the article, The Mobile Shift,
notes, The prevalence of mobile devices, smartphones in particular, has brought many changes
to our daily lives. They are small and portable, and we can use them everywhere for many
purposes, so these features cause a big change in our lives. Smartphones give us opportunities to
do the things that we couldnt do before, or we were doing only with personal computer devices.
Here are some advantages of smartphones that we can use for our daily lives. Most of them have
a camera that is very useful, and we can take photos or record videos for different purposes. They
have touchscreens that help us work easier with smartphones. In Kims opinion, The capability
for web browsing was more an idea than a reality. When the iPhone came out with its full
touchscreen, however, this instantly changed. The touchscreens caused a big change in the
technology of smartphones. We can see the feature of Bluetooth in the smartphones. Bluetooth
helps us to connect to other smartphones or devices that have Bluetooth and to transfer or to
receive data and different files in a definite distance. Smartphones can get us organized in our
lives with simple programs like contact list, daily tasks list, calendar and reminder for managing
meetings and appointments. Kim states, Neighbors now use the Bump app to get each others

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contact information on smartphones instead of using pencil and paper. Contact information is
one of the most essential information in our smartphones that we use too much. Smartphones
have capability of Internet connection in any place at any time. Kim points out, The greater
attraction comes from the fact that these mobile devices connect us with the Internet wherever
we go. Therefore, with Internet, we can access our e-mails and voice mails; we can access
different websites proportional to our needs; we can pay our bills, and we can download different
application and games. Brett Riggs in his article, OPINION: Smart phones send a message,
explains, The ability to send and retrieve e-mail, synch our phones to access home and work email, surf the Web, pull up a map of anywhere, keep a daily planner that will beep incessantly to
remind us of something, and use GPS navigation to find our way are just a few keystroke away
for us now. So, we can see how smartphones can help us in our daily lives, and they have been
entered in the daily lives for different activities when Internet is active. Another feature of
smartphones is controlling the personal computers. Riggs adds, I have set up an e-mail account
on my phone, and even synched my phone with our home e-mail. With proper software that we
install on our smartphones, we can access and control information in our personal computers
everywhere.
One of the best features of smartphones is GPS. This service is very useful, and we can
use it for many purposes. For example, we can use it for positioning; we can use it to solve the
traffic problems by finding the best route with the lowest traffic in a shortest time; we can use it
to look for lost people or even lost smartphones. M. W. Carr in the article, GPS Declassified:
From Smart Bombs to Smartphones, claims that, today, GPS is part of our daily life and writes,
People fight wars, protect their cars and homes, find destinations, track children and animals,
plant crops, and catch criminals using GPS. Today, the usefulness of GPS is more than usual,

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and we cant imagine how it is useful for many more? With smartphones, we can download ebooks or text files by Internet and read them at any time we want. There are special applications
that we can use on our smartphones for reading books or putting comments. Kim notes, Some
mobile users even prefer their smartphones and tablets to the desktop computer for causal
reading, media consumption, and social network updates. With smartphones, we can see movie
or video files in any place at any time. Watching the movie in the smartphone is the same as
watching movie in the PCs and laptops. The differences are that we can watch the movie in the
smaller screen, and we can watch the movie numerous times, because it is always in our hands.
We can also connect our smartphones to TV or computer devices and watch the film in the large
screen. We can use smartphones for playing songs. Smartphones have many capabilities for
playing and editing songs. For example, we can select a small part of a song and play it. We can
install different programs for this purpose on smartphones. We saw some of the features and
advantages of smartphones. Smartphones can be helpful in our lives, if we use them properly. In
Riggs opinion, No doubt these tools are convenient, helpful and they keep you connected. So,
they cause that we have a better life with providing the features that help us in different aspects
of our lives.
One of the most important technologies that most people with different ages use is the
Internet. Using the Internet is very popular, and rarely, we can see the persons that do not use the
Internet for daily tasks. Paul Gilon and C. A. Cardenas in their article, Appraisers and
cyberspace: An introduction to the Internet, write as follows: The Internet has doubled in size
every ten months for the past six years. (4) This growth has taken place not only on the hardware
side--host computers and the connections between them--but also in the number of users. They
add, The Internet provides between 20 and 60 million users worldwide access to searchable

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databases, new events, training information, discussion groups, and experts in various fields
(Gilon and Cardenas). The Internet is a pervasive network that is not limited to specific space,
and its global specification allows for many purposes. Everyday, the numbers of Internets users
grow in comparison with the past. With extensive use of portable computers like laptops and
notebooks, the limitation of using Internet in a specific location has disappeared. With mobile
Internet services for mobile phones and cell phones, we can access the Internet easily
everywhere you want. New software versions produce rapidly, and this software is available for
users to download easily. The Internet provides new professions, and with Internet, we can
access to a huge volume of information; we can do matters relating to banking and education; we
can read news; we can see films, and we can hear songs. Transmission of information happens in
the shortest time with high speed. Nowadays, Internet has been entered in all aspects of our lives
like social, political, culture, economy, research and scientific, communications and information
with stunning speed, and it causes saving the time and money. One research team explains,
Today the Internet is a global computer network that interconnects government agencies,
universities, businesses, organizations, and individuals (Gilon and Cardenas). Internet makes a
useful way for connection that didnt exist before, and it works like a communication bridge
between different users. Internet creates interactive tools like e-mail, visual live communication,
conversation and chat. Gilon and Cardenas point out, E-mail allows individuals to exchange
messages and files with other Internet users. This tool allows users to exchange simple text
information like messages, letters, invoice, and job requests. E-mails play a significant role in
our knowledge about daily events with exchanging information. We have access to different
social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter that have a big role in our communications and
our relationships in the communication age. Michele Van Volkom, Janice C Stapley and Vanessa

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Amaturo in Revisiting the Digital Divide: Generational Differences in Technology Use in

Everyday Life, discuss an idea from Facebook researchers L. Rainie, A. Smith & M. Duggan:
Facebook continues to be the most popular and wellknown social networking website with
more than two-thirds of Americans using it (Rainie, Smith, & Duggan, 2013). As these
researchers show using social networking websites are very popular among the people.
Alongside these technologies, some services like search engines were created that are very
functional. They discuss K. Purcell et al.s idea from another research project on search engines:
A common use of the Internet includes using search engines such as the popular search engine
Google (Purcell et al., 2012) (Van Volkom, Stapley and Amaturo). Most of the people due to
many reasons use search engines to search information in different fields. Using this information
is very useful to achieve the best result. Without any doubt, the Internet is one of the best
technologies. It creates a big change in our lives, and now we cant imagine the world without
Internet. Many features and advantages of the computers and the smartphones are available with
connection to the Internet. Internet helps us in our lives with access to different sources and
information. Internet opens the new doors for us toward the world of information.
We can declare that technologies make a big change in our lives, and they have
undeniable effects on all aspects of our lives. If we fail to move in step with the progress of
technologies, we will have a big problem in most of our activities and our tasks in the new world.
It is obvious if we want move in step with technological advances, we must update ourselves
about new technologies, and we should have enough knowledge about them. Today, computers,
smartphones and Internet are parts of the most important technologies. We saw some advantages
of these technologies that organize and help us in our lives. Although improper use of these
technologies make us different troubles in our daily lives, but with proper use of them, they can

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have positive impacts; they can be very useful, and they can cause our improvement in different
aspects of our lives.

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Works cited
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162-3. ProQuest. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Carr, M. W. "GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones." Choice 51.9 (2014):
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Gilon, Paul, and C. A. Cardenas. "Appraisers and Cyberspace: An Introduction to the
Internet." The Appraisal Journal 63.4 (1995): 469. ProQuest. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
Giorgis, Cyndi, and Nancy J. Johnson. "Technology in our Daily Lives." The Reading
Teacher 55.7 (2002): 699-700. ProQuest.Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Kim, Bohyun. "The Mobile Shift." Library Technology Reports 49.6 (2013):
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Riggs, Brett. "OPINION: Smart Phones Send a Message." McClatchy - Tribune Business
NewsSep 16 2008. ProQuest. Web. 22 Nov. 2015 .
Van Volkom, Michele, Janice C. Stapley, and Vanessa Amaturo. "Revisiting the Digital Divide:
Generational Differences in Technology use in Everyday Life." North American Journal
of Psychology 16.3 (2014): 557-74. ProQuest. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.
Wicker, Paul. "Organisational Skills and Tools." The Journal of Perioperative Practice 19.4
(2009): 136-41. ProQuest. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.