Smartphones

My Webster's 1266 page dictionary doesn't include the word smartphone. It does have smart and phone. So, guess we'll have to try to figure out what a smart phone or smartphone is. Off to Webster: a quick stinging pain; witty; stylish; trim; an offensively conceited person; adept; chic; shrewd . . . Alright. It depends on whether it is a noun, verb, vi, adj, adv, inf. Sorry, I guess you'll have to fill in the blanks and choose your own definition. Smart phone, smartphone.

I guess that sounds better than shrewdphone or chicphone, right? And looks better, too. Maybe adeptphone isn't too bad. My initial experience was with a land-line phone which did use telephone poles and wires though. It was limited to one unit in our home but share by half a dozen or so neighbors who lived nearby. For us that meant one phone for the seven of us plus a few neighbors and their kids. It did create some amusing as well as tense moments. 

As a teenager, I remember my younger sister (by one year) who emerged one day as a friend rather than a foe (maybe not quite that bad but we were not the best friends at the outset). I was dating a girl and didn't get her home quite when her mother thought she should be home. She called our house somewhere near midnight I suppose and my sister beat my folks to the phone. Dad yelled out, “Who was that?” She shot back, “Wrong number.” She and I have been the best of friends ever since.

Living from the grand ol' twenties until the 21st century has seen a lot of changes in the telephone industry and related entrepreneurs. Telephones help drive my courtship as Barbara and I lived a couple thousand miles apart. And it was costly on both ends as she also called. It was much faster than snail mail and I do love the telephone. Remember those pesky cords we had to tangle with to find privacy? 

I do not need to tell you about the evolution of the telephone as you know it so well as it is. But I do need to remind you that I am a senior, and I do have a cell phone (for emergencies) as our normal phone offers unlimited service in the States. However, I don't have a smartphone. Not yet, anyway. Forrester Research stated that 2.2 Trillion text messages will be sent this year in the U.S. Alone. That's 75,000 text messages every second and in 2013 it will surpass cell phones.

The growth of LTE subscribers has gone from 16.9 million in 2011 to 205.7 in 2013 and is expected to hit 1.12 billion in three years. Traffic on cellular networks has soared 20,000% in five years. Every day 1.3 million Android-based smartphones are currently being activated.

Worldwide, this phenomenon is likewise soaring.

Aren't you glad they aren't called dumbphones? Or are they? No. Except maybe they lend themselves to rather unwise usage. Texting maybe isn't for seniors with arthritic thumbs and fingers. But if texting takes away from that interesting trait of conversation or leads to less and less socialization, it could become a dumb thing. If it puts a dent in a rather tight budget, how wise is that? If it becomes a crucial companion 24/7, is that smart? Let's hope that smartphones will live up to their name.