• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Good places to start

Memoirs of a SLACer

sociological views on life and the liberal arts

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« A discussion question update
Conferencing with students »

The future in your pocket

April 1, 2012 by John

After years of using a “dumb” phone, I recently upgraded to a smartphone. I’ve obviously known people for years who lived in a world where phones do more than basic things like calling other people or even semi-advanced (for me) things like texting, but I have never experienced this world for myself. Now that I have, I have to say that I am amazed. Having grown up in a time period when getting a cordless telephone was a big deal, the fact that you can make calls from basically anywhere is incredible in itself, but the idea of doing things like checking my e-mail or people’s Facebook statuses from basically anywhere seems ridiculous.

Other than the fact that I am carrying the future around in my pocket, the thing that has struck me about this is that students probably take this technology completely for granted. When they are living out their hipster fantasies via Instagram or streaming a movie on Netflix, they don’t realize that the first computer my mom bought my sister and me when we were kids would explode at the mere suggestion of editing a photo or downloading (much less streaming!) video. I may not have a hoverboard, but I feel like I have finally arrived in the future.

(One other thing: I cannot understand why people insist on putting nicely designed phones in “cases” that effectively double their size. The future doesn’t come in an ugly rubber case and if you didn’t take it for granted you would know that!)

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Student Life, The Electronic Age | Tagged Dumb Phones, Hoverboards, Instagram, Memoirs of a SLACer, Smartphones, Texting, Ugly Phone Cases | 2 Comments

2 Responses

  1. on May 15, 2012 at 9:01 pm Technology to overcome technology « Memoirs of a SLACer

    […] the multitude of features that today’s smartphones have, some may be surprised to see commercials featuring people holding their phones while talking. […]


  2. on November 18, 2014 at 8:08 pm Digitizing my workload: Thoughts on the iPad Air 2 | Memoirs of a SLACer

    […] I like to wait about five years before purchasing a new technology (see also: my first smartphone). So far, my time with the iPad hasn’t provided the same level of amazement as my first […]



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About
    • Contact
    • Good places to start
  • Previous Posts

    April 2012
    M T W T F S S
     1
    2345678
    9101112131415
    16171819202122
    23242526272829
    30  
    « Mar   May »
  • Categories

  • Blogs I Read

    • Conditionally Accepted
    • Crooked Timber
    • Female Science Professor
    • Historiann
    • orgtheory.net
    • scatterplot
    • Small Pond Science
    • Soc'ing Out Loud
    • Sociology in Focus
    • Sociology Source
    • Sociology Toolbox
    • Tenured Radical
    • The Society Pages
    • whatisthewhat
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.com
  • Site Meter

    Site Meter

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Memoirs of a SLACer
    • Join 117 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Memoirs of a SLACer
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: