This blog is about a technology paradox that has been evolving over the span of the 76 years of my lifetime. The paradox being the evolution of the telephone -- a device which, when assisted, by a third party operator, was able to connect individuals over relatively short distances without either party having to leave their homes -- to becoming the current pocket sized devices whose LEAST impressive capability is the ability to connect a call from virtually anywhere in the world to virtually anywhere else in the world!
Like many dads and moms, granddads and grandmas, and even older than me generations, I am grateful that it has never been easier to communicate with all of my extended family, no matter what location or age they are. It is a joy! Yet I am also increasingly concerned by the exponentially increasing power and influence of these hand held devices commonly known as a “smart phone”.
For me, the challenge actually begins with the label “smart phone”. In reality these are programmed, thoughtless machines that allow the user to easily access zillions of bytes of every type of specific useful (or useless) information, while at the same time enticing its owner into spending hours of potentially addictive time staring at its screen. I am not judging how my children or my children’s children are allowed, or restricted from access to these smartphones. Smartphones are both inanimate AND amazing, and leap years in capability from my childhood experience of land lines, or, if you prefer: “dumb” phones. I am in awe of their capabilities.
Seventy years ago, in my childhood, phones were connected to live operators whose job it was to physically connect a caller to the party being called. Not only was your time on the call limited, unless you were actually on a call the phone was entirely useless! Ultimately, 20 years and the next generation later, the phones my children grew up with had eliminated the need for an operator, and had added features such as “hold”, “call waiting”, and “three-way calling”. Yet, there still remained only the singular function of connecting a call to an individual. Phones remained utilitarian. However, they had become simple enough that even children were capable of easily dialing their own calls, which often frustrated parents who found themselves harassing our kids to GET OFF THE PHONE!
Fast forward twenty more years and my four children were easily communicating on their own personal “cell phones”. These portable phones made it much easier to communicate without being tied to a home phone. The country was just beginning to be populated with cell towers. I actually became one of the first people I knew who even had a Car Phone. I justified the enormous monthly bill as being work related but the truth is, I abused the privilege just because it was such a cool, new technology. Kids were becoming way more independent from their parents, and that privacy for both adults AND children became easily more available. It could be argued that a fundamental change in the family structure was being initiated.
Now, 25 more years later, cell phones have become “smart phones” which have become a nearly essential device for not only communicating but also for entertaining, informing, socializing, competing, determining likes and dislikes, inclusion or exclusion, arbiters of good and bad, and a nearly essential fabric and fact of life at a younger and younger age. More and more content of smartphones compete for more and more of their owner’s time. And, the more we engage in the competition the more we are influenced by the tool -- our “smart phone”!
Not surprisingly, the more you use your smartphone the smarter it gets… about you. Your needs, your desires, your preferences, and the things you would love to own. I think every smartphone user eventually does, or will have, a moment of epiphany when they realize their phone actually knows eerily more about them than they really should.
I do not mean to be cynical. I believe that all of our children are well adjusted and aware of the influences targeting their kids. Their kids (our grandkids) are smart and independent and with guidance from their parents they will do what every generation has done: adapt, evolve, provide, and be in wonderment of all the incredible tools that THEIR grandchildren will have access to.
I am an optimist as I look forward into the nearly unimaginable pace of advancing technology and paradoxical outcomes. As a father, I think our greatest contribution, as well as our greatest obligation, is to teach optimism and faith and act accordingly.