Ethics of Mobile Applications
The modern mobile phone has taken a great leap in a very short span of time from its earliest versions, commonly termed then as cellular phones, which functioned only to make calls, send text messages and save contacts on the mobile device. Today, a mobile phone can be used for numerous purposes such as making calls or video calls, text or picture messaging, surfing the internet, acquiring information about the weather forecasts and the latest news, take pictures or make videos, watch movies and other videos, access emails and chat, play music and games and many more other things.
This huge surge of tasks that can be performed on a simple mobile phone has become possible due to the development of smart phones that can provide access to application softwares. It is these applications that make a user of the mobile phone to be able to perform all such tasks. Although applications started off with basic functions relating to contacts, emails, weather information, etc., the increasingly easy access to developer and production tools for mobile phone applications broadened the functionality portfolio and development of applications rapidly into areas such as social media, the global positioning system (GPS), banking, mobile games, and factory automation.
Today, the increasing hype of smart phones, that are dubbed to have brought the access to the world into a mere small piece of technology, has led to the development of thousands of applications, all for various purposes and many different platforms. Anyone can download any type of application for a nominal small fee or completely free of cost from various online application stores and the internet. Moreover, as many application development platforms, softwares and tools have become open sourced, i.e. freely distributed softwares that can be developed by anyone under the condition that developments are put under the same license as that of the original software (Holtgrewe). It has become easier for...
Such debates lead to the arguments of the ethical manifestations of these resources. Similarly, the fast paced development, easy access and availability of mobile phone applications has lead to the rise of the debate over the ethical perspectives and issues of using such applications. Ethics relating to the usage of mobile phone applications are more or less similar to those that relate to the usage of mobile phones themselves. The ethics relating to mobile applications has been relatively a new concern. These primarily focus on the invasion of privacy of other people, the manner in which the applications are used and the purposes of such applications in terms of the wider society.
Ethics apply on not just the end user of the application but also on the developers and the providers of all mobile phone applications. These ethics entail the impacts of these applications on personal levels, the immediate environment and the society at large. In terms of the personal impact, having access to numerous applications on your mobile phone can affect the manner of usage of the mobile phone by the user. One of the most common examples is that when a person does not have a social media application or a game on his or her phone, the time spent on the phone is smaller as compared to the increased time spent on the phone due to the availability of a social media application and the game. This increased time consumption on using the application can deviate a person from other real life social commitments, i.e. meeting friends and family members rather than just sending them a message through their application and participating in sports instead of playing games on the phones. In ethical terms,…
