Smart phones are useful and beneficial to society for all those reasons mentioned above. That's why I wrote this optimistic and exciting comment!... Just kidding... Smart phones are great, but the extent to which our society sacrifices resources to produce smart phones is frightening. And the phone companies know it. They like to sell us more things that we already have and don't need more of. Its creating demand! My 6 year old smart phone works fine for everything I need, yet I know people who always think they need the newest phone. Buying new phones and disposing old ones has an environmental impact by using up severely important resources, by polluting during the transportation process, and by releasing toxins in the disposal process.