In this article, I will discuss some of the things you shouldn’t do with your smartphone. Many young people and students make the mistakes mentioned in this article. So, that’s why I write my paper to prevent possible troubles with your smartphone.
1. Install all sorts of nasty apps on it
Google Play and the App Store are full of useless, annoying, and sometimes harmful apps. For example, “cleaners”, “optimizers”, antiviruses, endless widgets, and launchers. They only clog the device’s memory and devour the battery power.
Do not install anything on your smartphone, except for those applications that you use regularly.
And even more so, do not download applications that are offered to you on suspicious sites with green “download for free” buttons. If you have Android, look in the settings and make sure that the option “Allow installation of applications from unknown sources” is unchecked.
2. Stare at the screen while walking
Walking through the streets with your smartphone in your hand is simply dangerous. Very often people play games on the go or text someone. You can easily get hit by a car, crash into a wall or fall into a fountain in a shopping center, or slip and stretch your ankle.
In some US cities, Texting While Walking has been even banned at the legislative level (Here’s How to Stop, An Efficient Walking Safety Service for Distracted Mobile Users).
Do you really want to put your life and health in danger, just to like another stupid photo in your feed?
3. Put your smartphone on the table when meeting
When you are at a business meeting, a date, or just get-togethers with friends, you do not need to defiantly put your smartphone on the table. There are several reasons for this.
Research (Can you connect with me now? How the presence of mobile communication technology influences face‑to-face conversation quality) shows that such a gesture makes your interlocutors dislike you. They may get the impression that you can’t give up your device even at the table. Or just brag about it.
The presence of a smartphone in your hands (The iPhone Effect: The Quality of In-Person Social Interactions in the Presence of Mobile Devices) reduces the level of empathy, making the conversation more intense. It even reduces your Cognitive Capacity (Cognitive Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available), so it becomes more difficult to maintain a conversation.
There is also a purely practical side. If you put your smartphone screen down, as is now very common, you can scratch it.
4. Drain the battery to zero
There is a myth that the smartphone battery should be used until it is completely discharged, and only then connect it to the power supply network. Ostensibly, this extends the battery life, but this is not the case.
Charge your smartphone whenever you feel comfortable, but don’t let the charge level drop below 20%, that’s all.
5. If your smartphone is wet, place it in the rice
If your smartphone is wet, put it in a bowl of rice, and it will remain functional.
This clever life hack most likely appeared on the Internet in 2007, when one of the users of the MacRumors portal was advised to save his first iPhone in this way (I dropped my iPhone in water).
It’s actually a stupid idea. Resources Gazelle and The Verge conducted two independent experiments Gazelle’s Guide to Water Damage: The Truth About Rice, the Galaxy, and Everything, Can rice actually save your wet phone? As a result, they found out that rice won’t help. It can even hurt if small particles get into the case.
Therefore, if you wet your smartphone, use the instructions of the manufacturer or bring it to the service center.
6. Clean the screen with random tools
There are a huge number of things that you definitely should not wipe your smartphone with. These are window cleaning liquids, household chemicals, alcohol, vinegar, soap, and other similar things. All of them can damage the oleophobic coating or corrode the screen and scratch the glass.
So even if your smartphone is very dirty, clean it carefully. To do this, you will need special wipes for screens or made of microfiber, a little distilled water (just to slightly moisten the cloth), and a liquid for cleaning electronics.
7. Leave your phone on the couch
You are reading something very interesting from your smartphone, sitting comfortably on the couch. Suddenly, you have to leave your couch to feed the cat. The animal is fed, you return to the room, plop down on the sofa and feel a crunch. Yes, it was your stylish flagship.
Therefore, do not throw smartphones and tablets on the sofa. After all, just because a coffee table is called a coffee table doesn’t mean you can’t put gadgets on it.
8. Touch your face and lips with your smartphone
Our smartphones are not very clean devices. A typical mobile phone carries the order Are we aware of how contaminated our mobile phones with nosocomial pathogens? 25,000 bacteria per square inch. It turns out that smartphones are dirtier than the toilet handle, which is washed at least once every five days (The Dirty Truth).
People take it with them to the toilet, gym, public transport, and many other places, and then put this thing on the dining table. Smartphones can even carry E. coli and staphylococcus Mobile phones carry owners’ bacterial ‘fingerprints (Contamination of UK mobile phones and hands revealed).
So if you don’t want to get an upset stomach or worse, try not to touch your face and mucous membranes after holding the phone. And no need to kiss the screen with that awesome photo of a friend, no matter how much you love her.
9. Leave your smartphone on the beach
It’s not even that it can be stolen. The danger is slightly less obvious-overheating. The device heats up under too intense sunlight. This may dim the screen, or the lithium-ion battery will deteriorate (or even explode). The plastic case can even melt in extreme heat.
This applies not only to the beach. It is highly undesirable to leave the equipment, for example, in the back seat of a car or on a sun-drenched windowsill.
10. Leave your smartphone in the freezer
There is a myth on the Internet, that if you put your smartphone (or only the battery from it) in the freezer for a day, it will prolong the battery’s performance (How to Reset a Cell Phone Battery in the Freezer). This is savagery. Phone manufacturers do not recommend doing so.
11. Take selfies in inappropriate places
Selfies: A boon or bane? It is reported that from 2011 to 2017, 259 people died in the world trying to take a risky selfie. Most accidents involving amateur photographers occurred in India, followed by Russia, the United States, and Pakistan.
Most people take extreme selfies during international travel, tourist trips: on high bridges and buildings, during thunderstorms, or in the presence of dangerous wild animals (The ‘selfie’ phenomenon: reducing the risk of harm while using smartphones). Most often, photographers just drown while shooting on the beach, when they are washed away by a wave. Many accidents occurred with those who snap the camera behind the wheel or standing on the roadway (Death in a flash: selfie and the lack of self‑awareness).