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!)
Memoirs of a SLACer 