If you’ve used a smartphone — like an iPhone or an Android, or one of the newer BlackBerrys — for a fairly long time, here’s a challenge: go for a day or two without your phone, and see how it feels. And I don’t mean going skiing or hiking the Appalachian Trail or something like that either; try to go without it during a regular day in a city, or better still try to do without it when you are on a business trip to an unfamiliar city. I did that — not deliberately, mind you — on a recent day in San Francisco, when my iPhone suddenly decided to lock me out (maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to it). And it was a painful experience.
Why was it painful? Simply put, I was disconnected. And I don’t mean that I couldn’t make phone calls — in fact, that was the part about the phone I missed the least. But I couldn’t look up where I was in Google Maps or any other GPS-based service, to try and find out where I was going, or measure how long it was going to take me, or get directions on how to get there (I was trying to get to the Apple store, so they could help me fix the phone, which suddenly started asking me for a passcode, even though I hadn’t set one). Particularly in an unfamiliar city, this kind of tool is hugely useful — and even in the city I normally live in, I use it all the time.
But it was more than just that. I couldn’t take photos of my surroundings, which is another thing I like to do a lot (especially in a city as great-looking as San Francisco), because the iPhone is my main camera, and I have it with me at all times. I used to like to snap shots and upload them to Flickr or Facebook — and now I share them with Instagram — a service that posts your photos to a stream your friends can follow and comment on, but also automatically cross-posts them to other services as well, including Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and Tumblr.
Twitter and Facebook were the other two things I missed. As anyone who follows me on Twitter (I’m @mathewi) probably knows, I share a lot on Twitter — thoughts, but mostly links to interesting content. It’s become an integral part of my day (and often of my night as well); not just posting things that I come across, but reading and commenting on the things that others post. I know it’s an overused term, but it really is a conversation, and it was something I missed a lot. And probably above all else, I missed being able to do that while killing time waiting in line — like the line I was waiting in to get my phone fixed.
But it was more than that. I missed the ability to look up anything I was curious about in Google at a moment’s notice. What is that building? Why is it called that? What does that sign mean? Why is there a giant bow and arrow sticking in the ground near the Embarcadero, which is right on the bay in San Francisco? Lots of questions like that occurred to me, but I was incapable of finding the answers. Sure, I could have bought a guidebook or something, or I suppose I could have stopped someone, but the ability to do it from a handheld device on a whim is something I have become fairly addicted to. And I have learned a lot as well.
This isn’t about the iPhone either — I am a big fan of the iPhone, but I think it’s fine if other people use a BlackBerry or an Android. My point is that smartphones have changed our lives in hundreds of tiny ways, and it isn’t until we try to spend a day or two without them that we find out exactly how dependent we are on them. Is that a good thing? I don’t know, to be honest. Maybe not. Maybe I should remember more things, instead of relying on my ability to look them up in Google. But I do know that having those tools at my fingertips is incredibly powerful — it may change the world, but it has certainly changed mine. And I think for the better.