A friend of mine recently shared a post with me about the differences between our daily activities back in the 90’s and now. The post was a comic showing several activities like music listening, socializing, sending mail, and other things. Basically, the column on the right kept showing the same drawing for all of those activities, one of a person sitting with their laptops on their desks. It’s true, we can now virtually do most things without having to change position or even leaving the comfort of our homes (offices?).
However, as soon as I finished looking at the comic, I turned to my left and saw my iPhone. How many things have I used this little piece of machinery for? And so I started listing out all of them in my head:
- I keep all my social networks there. Thus I interact via my iPhone no matter where I am.
- I text message
- I use it as a regular phone
- I browse the web
- I scan documents and send them as attachments via email
- I manage three email accounts of mine
- I blog (very important)
- I play games
- I IM with friends, family and coworkers
- I use it as a camera
- …
The truth is I could go on with this list forever. It’s not so much the actual gadget anymore, but the apps and the creativity of the people who create them that help the consumer define what they really want to do with their technological tool.
If someone had been worried about the low mobility that having to do everything from a single spot represented, they needn’t be so anymore. Our little phones are now getting empowered more and more every day to behave as super mini computers. If they go wherever we go, then we don’t have to worry about not being able to complete tasks if we’re away from the mighty computer. The very concept behind the original Wii is now being perpetrated by the smartphone itself. To be technological, you don’t have to be sedentary. On the contrary, technology follows you.
So better yet, you get your entire world in your pocket. Of course, there’s still a long way to go. No matter how practical it may be and from how many so called “emergencies” might the smartphone save you from, the computer screen is still more comfortable to work on. However, it won’t be too long for someone to come up with a practical solution for this. Have you thought about all the things you’ve done with your phone so far? Some of them might be even unbelievable to some of us.