What's After Smartphones?
Updated: Jan 16, 2020
Smartphones...
The moment I heard that term I cringed. It seemed so...silly.
The iphone was not the first smartphone, Blackberry and Nokia were already ahead in that game and Blackberry was so secure it was the go to phone for the US government.
the iphone is an unnecessary distraction that featured a colorful display and a means of consuming ridiculous amounts of entertainment that we never thought possible. It has damaged our ability to focus on simple tasks, decreased our situational awareness, increased the prevalence of glasses wearing students and much, much more.
Other companies like Samsung, LG and HTC offer great alternatives that often eclipse the iphone in terms of features and compactness and have helped the idea of the smartphone go mainstream.
Now, we can order anything from monopolies like Amazon, obsess over the tracking of our packages, attempt to all become famous on apps like Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch and yet we feel more incomplete and overloaded than ever before.
Many people have written opinion pieces on the subject and have great references that can back up their claims both for and against smartphone use.
We know how smartphone apps can run in the background collecting data and almost all require access to your camera, microphone, contacts, or gps location even. We know how our data can be sold like how Facebook and Microsoft have been caught doing and never been formally punished for it. We know how apps like Facebook and Smart Tvs can spy on us through the camera and mics built in. We are now swamped in an increasing 5g network that many are arguing is harmful to our DNA.
So, what will we move to after the smartphone. When it has reached its limit for holding our attention. What will some team develop to suck the life out of our skulls in the near future?
With the gradually increasing success of VR headsets I think we will start to see those mobile apps being supported on VR platforms. More and more effort will be put in to keeping our heads wrapped tight with those headsets. I love VR, I used to hate it and I was blown away even with the Oculus Rift CV1 I purchased just out of curiosity. It has some INCREDIBLE applications for learning, teaching, training and of course....entertainment.
So what will be the next mobile technology after smartphones, after VR intergration?
My feeling is we will adopt a minimalist technologically aware mindset more and more over time.
This means we will reduce the amount of entertainment we consume, simplify the kind of tech we interact with and increase our awareness of the composition and function of that tech.
Our tech will become more efficient in the way we interact with it and how it integrates with the natural world.
I see us continuing to use wearables far into the future. I think wearables are fantastic!
I see us falling out of love with colorful brightly lit screens and even paper ink type screens which feel much much better on the eyes (seriously, try one out).
We may go the hologram route as people have dreamed that for over a century. There have been a few authors that have published sci fi books which explain the idea and yet we haven't developed it. I see us coming closer to that. The problem is, much like adjusting the flame height of a lighter, people may run around projecting their inappropriate holographic videos all over the place...So, I'm not a huge fan of the possibility.
What do you think? Do you think there are some other avenues we might take?
I'm sure you have some great ideas!
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