Most of the world doesn't have toilets, running water or democratically elected governments either. But in the west those are still considered "necessities". I

Most of the world doesn't have toilets, running water or democratically elected governments either. But in the west those are still considered "necessities". I'm not equating the need for a smartphone with the above things, of course. The point is that "necessity" in this context is relative to those you compete with, and is not a binary black or white. It's a scale of grey. In my opinion, having an informed, engaged, educated, and well connected populace is indeed a necessity. The smartphone (+ the internet) facilitates that better than any invention since the printing press IMHO.