zlacker

I'm kinda curious as to why you think that's the case. I mean, smartphones are nice, and having a browser, chat client, camera etc. in my pocket is nice, but maybe I have been terminally screen-bound all my life, but I could do almost all those things on my PC before, and I could always call folks when on the go.

I've never experienced the massively life changing effects of having a smartphone, and (thankfully) none of my friends seem to be those people who are always looking at their phones.

>>torgin+(OP)
While many technologies provided by the smartphone were indeed not novel the cumulative effect of having a constant access to them and their subsequent normalization is nothing short of revolutionary.

For instance, I remember the time when chatting online (even with people you knew offline) was considered to be a nerdy activity. Then it gradually became more mainstream and now it's the norm to do it and a lot of people do it multiple times per day. This fundamentally changes how people interact with each other.

Another example is dating. Not that I have personal experience with modern online dating (enabled by smartphones) but what I read is disturbing and captivating at the same time e.g. apparent normalization of "ghosting"...