It is surprising that an insurance company gets into the eggplant of guessing what will come after smartphones or smart phones. But that is what Línea Directa Aseguradora has done by releasing a report entitled “And after smartphones, what? Cyborg Citizen ”, with the aim of analyzing what will be the next digital revolution after the smartphone.
The conclusion of this study is even more surprising: 20% of Spaniards would be willing to implant a chip in their body to replace the mobile phone and its functions . Thus, data storage (46%), having an integrated camera (31%) and having a GPS (27%) are the functionalities preferred by citizens to install them on their body.
The main disadvantages of having a chip would be, in the opinion of Spaniards, possible health problems due to having a foreign body in the body (59%) , having to give data to third parties about their personal life (57%) and not being able to disconnect digitally (53%). The advantages, on the other hand, would be to always be reachable (31%) and not have to carry physical devices on them (30%).
13% of Spaniards are not in favor of indefinitely prolonging life through cyborg technology, considering that it would be “contrary to nature” and that it would generate great social inequalities (60%), since only people with more resources could access it.
La Rioja (28%), Andalusia (26%) and the Canary Islands (24%) are the territories where their inhabitants are most open to becoming cyborgs . On the opposite side are Navarra (10%), Asturias (14%) and Aragón (16%), where the vast majority of citizens would consider it “outrageous.”
More than 180 years ago, Edgar Allan Poe was the first to imagine a character half man, half robot, which could be considered the first fantasy of the human being with the cyborg . Today, there are countries like Sweden where Poe’s story is coming true. In fact, in the Nordic country more than 4,000 people have implanted an electronic device in their body in order to facilitate their daily life, often as a substitute for some function of the smartphone: paying in shops, opening the door of the house, accessing to work or validate a train ticket, among others.
The author of the report says that “it is evident that technology has transformed our way of living, working and relating to each other, and that, as a consequence, some devices, such as smartphones, have become one more extension of our body , being already essential in our lives ”.
Línea Directa also wanted to test the degree of dependence of today’s society on smart phones, which undoubtedly seems to be increasing. In fact, 21% of citizens admit “feeling anxiety” if they do not carry their mobile phone , to the point of being able to go home for it. In addition, 30% are unable to carry out any activity for more than an hour without consulting their smartphone.
All this has consequences, since many Spaniards recognize that excessive dependence on technology reduces their cognitive abilities .
46% of Spaniards admit to having lost skills since they have a mobile phone, 56% do not remember more than four phone numbers and more than 50% would have great difficulty reaching a new destination without having GPS. In addition, 2 out of 3 respondents say that their addiction affects their personal relationships.
