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Topic: Mobility

The indispensable smartphone

Summary: Once we adopted the smartphone its many uses helped worm its way into the very fabric of our lives.

James Kendrick

By for Mobile News |

Remember the last flip phone you owned? Not a smartphone by any means, it was pretty dumb. You probably only used it for actually talking to people. Now you've got a super smartphone, and if you are like most owners it has become darn near indispensable.

Back in the day of the feature phone, you probably forgot it at least once when you headed out for your day. There was a sense of panic when you realized it was back home as you were cut off from the people in your life. Of course the day progressed just fine, and in the end not having the phone was just another minor event in your day.

The smartphone has become such a major part of the lives of many of us. It has become so important that inadvertently leaving the phone at home would be a catastrophe. I know folks who have turned around to go back home to retrieve a forgotten smartphone, even when being late had dire consequences.

Doing without the smartphone for a whole day is unthinkable for many of us. The phone now keeps us connected to far more than our phone buddies. Today's smartphone connects us to our family, friends, social networks, breaking news, current events, and the entire Internet.

Without the smartphone we wouldn't know about news the instant it breaks. We'd miss our friends' status updates in real-time. We wouldn't be able to look up any fact on a need to know basis. We wouldn't know what the weather has in store. It would be lot of trouble to find out where that new restaurant is located at lunch-time. We definitely wouldn't be able to find it on a map and then get directed to it.

Worst of all we wouldn't be able to fling disgruntled avians at envious swine.

A day without the smartphone wouldn't be the end of the world, but we'd be totally in the dark. We would be cut off from our world, a world we are more aware of than ever before.

The smartphone has become indispensable to us in our daily lives. Even though I'll bet many of us speak with others far less using the smartphone than we did with the old feature phone, we are far more connected with others than we have been in the past.

We could live without our smartphone, for a short time anyway, without dire consequences. But it would be a very unpleasant experience, and one we would go to great lengths to avoid. The smartphone has become an integral part of our lives, and we are better off for it.

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Topics: Mobility, Hardware, Smartphones, Telcos

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14 comments
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  • Hmm

    I didn't even carry a phone before I got my first blackberry... since then I have had multiple smartphones and really wouldn't like not having one... I can honestly say the convenience of.having all my.messages and emails at my hand has saved me time in the evenings as I never sit down at the PC anymore.
    slickjim
    Reply Vote

  • I admit I'm one of the ones

    Who went back home to get a forgotten smartphone - as a work tool my smartphone is the most used and is as much of a requirement as my being there. it's not missing the Angry Birds so much (well not at all) as it is that everything for my job I do on that phone - emails, texts, phone calls, use the appointment calendar, and access the work order system.
    NonFanboy
    Reply Vote

  • Indispensible

    Off the top of my head, the things I use my smart phone for in order of importance to me: Instant communication (phone, text); Navigation (point-to-point and locating stores, businesses and services); Podcasts (a very bit part of my travel time); Shared calendaring (Appointments, Reminders, Alarms, Timers); Everything internet (reading, researching facts, etc.); Utilities (weather, to do list, notes, etc); Photos (taking, storing and displaying); Messages (e-mail); Games.
    Falkirk
    Reply Vote

  • Today's luxuries are

    Tommorrow's necessities.
    baggins_z
    Reply Vote

  • Smartphones can be redundant

    I have cellular on my laptop, and rarely use my smartphone. I prefer the laptop in almost all cases, even using it as a phone. It may simply be because i find the smartphone interface hard to see, I am 59. My laptop does everything the smartphone does plus more and I have no problems lugging it around in my briefcase.
    hayneiii@...
    Reply Vote

  • Who is this "we"?

    I still have a flip phone - doesn't even have a camera. I only use it for phone calls. If I forget it at home, it's no big deal. I only accept calls at certain times, otherwise I just let it go to voicemail. I don't have any of the stuff you talked about on your smartphone, and I don't miss it. Frankly, I think a lot of people would be better off if they didn't have one. They might get a chance to use their brains occasionally, instead of just mindlessly playing games or browsing the internet.
    And I NEVER answer the phone when I'm eating or having a conversation with other people. I consider that to be extremely rude. Unfortunately, I'm in the minority.
    Unusual1
    Reply Vote

  • Irony?

    I hope the author is being ironic. This idea of "I can't live without my smart phone" is terrifying - are people really that sad? You can't wait until you get home to check your friends' status updates - really? You can't get a weather update without your smartphone - really? Or find a restaurant, get your news - you NEED a smartphone for all of these things, couldn't accomplish these tasks without one?

    Wow.

    That's exactly what the manufacturers of these devices want to hear - congrats! You've been brainwashed into thinking you couldn't get along very well in life without these devices. All of the important things this blog listed could be accomplished without a smartphone, quite easily, and almost NONE of them are so important you need it "in real time." Friend status updates? In real time? Absolutely ridiculous that is considered an "integral" part of our lives, and that we are "better off" for it.

    If this wasn't meant to be sarcastic, it is easily the most terrifying sign of the times I have read in a while.
    drunkenribeye
    Reply Vote

  • Natural Progression

    and it will keep advancing as we develop new technologies and new ways to impliment them.

    Give me a set of Google Glasses ..... :D
    rhonin
    Reply Vote

  • Waiting to hear....

    .... that SA (Smartphoneoholics Anonymous) support groups have been organized. It's gonna happen.
    Userama
    Reply Vote

    • SA

      Ha!

      We don't need support groups, though; we just need people to stop making it seem like their lives are dependent upon a piece of technology. Smartphones are very handy tools, but that's all they are: tools. Once you've convinced yourself you cannot live without it, you've bought into the fallacy hook, line and sinker.
      drunkenribeye
      Reply Vote

  • When I read this I assumed irony, but ...

    I actually know several people who fit the profile. My sister's kids are in their teens, and the worst punishment she can inflict on them is locking up their smartphones. My niece is reduced to tears at the thought of not seeing tweets from Lindsay Lohan and Snooki in real time.

    Smartphones can help you work smarter, but they can also become a terrible time sink and distraction. It all depends on who is the master and who is the slave.
    terry flores
    Reply Vote

  • A day in the field without my smartphone

    would be the last day of my current job.
    cym104
    Reply Vote

  • How Sad

    As I read your article I thought how sad and pathetic people have become in thinking that they can't live without having their SP with them. RU kidding me? Virtually EVERYTHING that you can do with the SP you can do without it. Having to have "real-time FB status updates" to feel "connected". Seriously? You can't live without knowing what your BFF had for breakfast and what time they had a BM? Seriously? Get a life! No, not a VIRTUAL electronic life, but a REAL life that interacts face to face with real people that you know and care about.

    About the only folks that "need" to have their SP on a daily basis are those folks that need them for business purposes and don't want the hassle of carrying around their laptop. Laptops may not be as "convenient" but they can outperform the typical SP; hands down.

    Back in the day before every T, D and H had an SP, we used to call the higher up management folks that had Blackberry Phones; CRACK Berries. They just HAD to be tethered to their Crackberry Phones so that they could keep up with the hundreds of emails that they received daily. They were ADDICTED to keeping in touch with their email systems and the pulse of the departments that they managed.

    Sorry, but too many people have drunk the SP Kool-Aid and believe the marketing hype that says that you NEED to have your SP with you ALL the time.
    jeffrey.pringle@...
    Reply Vote

  • We've been Borged!

    Resistance is futile.
    Patanjali
    Reply Vote
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