I came from old school. In old school there was a lot of technology but it had no mind. We were always amazed at the things it could do. Our parents were always saying, “What are they going to think of next.” So much of the technologies were gimmicks. It’s more than a frame of mind; it is a different reality. We live in a different reality now. Let’s talk about the difference between the telephone and the smartphone. No comparison. With the advent of artificial intelligence, machines have changed. I used to think of the telephone as a machine. I don’t anymore. You didn’t have to get to know a telephone; you do a smartphone.
What are the most important features of a smartphone?
As I remember them (I haven’t used a telephone in years), telephones had one function. In fact, no one spoke of the function of a telephone, maybe stuffy academics. Telephones were devices used to talk to another person at a distance. Everyone thought this was amazing! I’ve done some research and I’ve been able to identify 16 functions or features of a smartphone. I can assure you other features will soon be added. Let me list them.
- Internet access
- Web browser
- The ability to sync more than one email to an account
- Embedded memory
- A hardware or software based QWERTY keyboard
- Wireless synchronization with other devices such as laptops or desktop computers
- The ability to download applications and run them independently
- Support for third-party applications
- The ability to run multiple applications concurrently
- Touchscreens
- Wi-Fi access
- A digital camera with video capacity
- unified messaging
- Global positioning systems
- Support for accessories (bluetooth headphones, power charging cables, and extra speakers)
- Software updates
What is a Smartphone, Really?
Telephones never did all those things. In fact, the structure and concept of a telephone is really quite different. You can’t reverse engineer a smartphone and arrive at even a more advanced telephone. You never had to get to know a telephone. There was nothing to know. You have to get to know a smartphone. Having to get to know a technology is something new in our world and has been difficult for me to understand. If you don’t know what a smartphone is, then you can’t use it. So, what is a smartphone? Well, first it is a cellular telephone with an integrated computer and an operating system (OS). It has digital wallet features with which you can store your credit card information on a SIM card and make purchases. But you can do more. I use my smartphone to do my banking. Smartphones go deeper into consumer behavior with the Apple Pay that allows the user to pay others. Global positioning is incredible. A few years ago I was hiking in the redwoods in northern California and decided to see if my smartphone would direct me to the nearest highway. Where I was, there were no roads. It did.
Why do I need to Know My Smartphone?
You need to know your smartphone, because of all the things it does for you. If you don’t understand the technologies that run your life, you will lose touch with your reality. That’s a really bad place to be. You have a relationship with your smartphone. A relationship is not so simple as to be reduced to how you use it. I never had a relationship with a telephone. To have a relationship with a telephone would have been comic material. I’ve been spending some time getting to understand my smartphone better. Since I first bought one, I have always walked around with an uncomfortable awareness in the back of my mind that there was much more to this device than I knew, and maybe could every know. I’ve tried not to think about it. I shook off this strange feeling by telling myself that all the things I didn’t know about the device were not important for me to know. But the problem is that the devices change rapidly and what you don’t know starts pilling up. The uncomfortable awareness starts to become a fear. I was well on my way to a phobia of technology. I’ve had some bad experiences with it. I had to realize that the machines we have now are fundamentally different from any machine we have had in the past. As these devices have increased in our lives, I’ve reached the conclusion that there is emerging a body of knowledge that one must understand if one is to continue in this reality that has surplanted what we nostagically refer to as “old school.”
Becoming Acquainted with My Smartphone
You may think if you use a device, you know it. That is true for a telephone but not a smartphone. When I read advertisements for smartphones, I see many words that I feel like I know but as I read farther, I begin to realize that maybe I don’t know that word anymore. Memory is such a word that I felt comfortable with until I began reading about smartphones. A valuable feature of smartphones is “embedded memory.” Well, I’ve learned that in the digital world there is not just memory. There is embedded memory and volatile memory. Embedded memory is memory that is in a system device that is embedded in the smartphone. The memory is in the device’s processor and is essential for running the device. Volatile memory is memory that requires the device to be powered. When the power of the smartphone is turned off, the information is lost. That is why you need to save information if you want to keep it. Until you save it, it is in volatile memory.
Conclusion
In just a few years, we will have cars that drive themselves. At present, cars are not machines that have memory. They are still part of “Old School.” Cars are such a big part of some people’s identity, this kind of a change in cars will make huge waves in these peoples’ lives. Who could have guessed what kind of change in our lives the putting of memory into a telephone would make? We will have a different relationship with machines in the 21st century than we had in the 20th. Let’s embrace it!!!