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I think it was Aral Balkan who said we're like cyborgs now with our smartphones. I remember him saying that in a talk, and the idea resonated with me. The key d

I think it was Aral Balkan who said we're like cyborgs now with our smartphones. I remember him saying that in a talk, and the idea resonated with me. The key difference is that it's not a chip in our brain, but a device we hold and treat like a pacifier. I think we need a new term for smartphones though. I don't know the stats, but who makes plain telephone calls anymore when we have WhatsApp etc? A smartphone is really just a small tablet that happens to have a baseband (that people rarely use apart from cellular Internet).

bee_rider 3y ago
It is shocking how fast we’ve become totally dependent on smartphones. I remember getting lost on my college campus, having to print out maps and stuff. And I’m not really that old.
- jiggawatts 3y ago
  If you’d had no idea what a smart phone was but were observing human behaviour from afar, then we would seem freakishly coordinated, as-if we had telepathy or a hive mind. Imagine watching from space as drivers detour around an accident ahead almost like they had foreknowledge of conditions they can’t have seen yet…
TwoCent 3y ago
They are kind of like pacifiers for adults, aren't they? The term "fondleslab" captures that; I believe I first read that moniker years ago in some article on the Register.
AnimalMuppet 3y ago
> who makes plain telephone calls anymore when we have WhatsApp etc? Um... I do? And almost everyone I know?