In 2025, the cellphone has become an essential part of our human interactions. Almost everyone has a cellphone due to its necessity in everyday living. While technology has made tasks such as accessing information and contacting someone much easier, I believe that it has also begun challenging important social etiquette and societal norms.
Debates against cellphone usage are common, but often aimed at younger generations or come off as insulting. I believe this rhetoric is flawed and that changes to our behavior as a result of cellphones aren’t a generational issue at all. Instead, I feel all age demographics have fallen into newly normalized habits such as increased phone use, rude interactions and oversharing because they are addicted to technology.
One of the issues I’ve observed is that many people are unable to recognize situations when their phone use is inappropriate. Personally, I have been invited as a guest to people’s homes, and was subjected to them being on a nonurgent phone call the entire time I was over. I believe that hosting guests is a time to be enjoying their company rather than being on a call the entire time. While I don’t think it’s likely that a friend would ever intentionally hurt my feelings, it certainly doesn’t feel good to be ignored because you’re busy on the phone with a trivial conversation.
The aforementioned example applies to other social scenarios like dinners, weddings and other important events. Excusing yourself to call has always been proper etiquette, but I believe the portability of phones has brought a newfound sense of urgency to answering immediately.
In addition to the overall overuse of phones negatively affecting social interactions, another issue I have observed is an increased lack of empathy. I believe this stems from social media, which can now be accessed through almost any device. The increasingly easy access and portability of phones only add to this. Don’t get me wrong, trolling online and being rude for “fun” has always been popular on the internet. Usually, people who act rudely online are much more willing to engage in harmful interactions under the anonymity of an online profile. Many users who do this seem to forget the consequences of their actions in real life. However, I think as humans, we are much more rude or judgmental toward one another as a result of increased phone use.
In addition to this, another habit I see stemming from social media interactions is the normalization of oversharing. Many people overshare very personal aspects of their lives with people online– again a result of anonymity. I think oversharing continues to become more common as we use our cellphones for social media, and as it becomes more common online, the behavior starts to seep into our face-to-face interactions as well.
I will say, I am guilty of this problem, as I often find myself oversharing with people I don’t know all that well. While oversharing can feel normal, upon reflection, some things are best kept to ourselves. The wall between what we are supposed to share and what we’re not supposed to has blurred because of increased engagement in online cultures.
In general, due to the increased engagement with phones and the cultures they connect us to, the way that we behave socially has changed greatly. Always being on the phone, increased rude interactions and oversharing have become part of daily life. In the end, I feel that cellphones have played a major role in destroying many of the social norms that were previously cemented culturally.
