How Smart Are Smartphones?

The public at large thinks that they can’t live without these devices.

Smart Phone android

(SALEM, Ore.) - A strange epidemic has taken hold, spreading to the farthest corners of the globe. It threatens to alter the course of history by turning previously productive members of society into mindless droids.

You’ve seen them zigzagging down the sidewalk, walking into objects, stepping off into traffic as if blind, or uncaring, perhaps suicidal. The predominant symptom is a desire to stare into the hand, as if pondering the stigmata, or reading the palm to foresee the future.

The victim may appear unresponsive or comatose, and the mouth may move as if engaged in conversation with some unseen demon.

I’m talking about the proliferation of so-called smart phones, I-pads, and similar devices. It seems everything previously important in life has paled in comparison to the extent that even the most mundane tasks can result in injury to internal organs, detached retinas, broken bones, and arrested development.

Non-stop texting has resulting in serious medical conditions such as dehydration, malnutrition, and various psychotic conditions that threaten to undermine the health of society.

Before the invention of ‘smart’ phones, mankind evolved to become the most advanced primate on the Earth, claimed by some to be in the image of God himself. Now we’re lucky if our shoes are tied as we step off the curb into rush hour traffic.

Before the I-pad, we invented geometry, navigation and astronomy, and traveled to every continent with relative ease. Now we surf our way into oblivion, and delay the most basic necessities to pass on virus-infested e-mails. Before the Blackberry, we unraveled the nature of the atom, of time itself, and ventured to the moon. Now people can’t even drive a car without plunging into the front of a house or business because they’re distracted.

Before the I-phone, people engaged in forthright pastimes, read books, and enjoyed conversations. Now our energy is spent avoiding spy-ware created by shadowy, faceless people with nothing better to do.

The public at large thinks that they can’t live without these devices. We did fine without them for thousands of years, and achieved the technology that made them possible. But now the cart is in front of the horse, if you can understand what that means. Google it.

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J. D. Adams was born in Salem, Oregon, a descendant of Oregon Trail pioneer William Lysander Adams. As a wilderness explorer, photographer, and writer, he sustains a kinship with the spirit of the Oregon country. JD inhabits Oregon's Silicon Forest as an electronics professional with degrees in Electronics Engineering Technology and Microelectronics.

He maintains a Web presence with a signature presentation in genres including travel, history, and technology.

You can write to Jim Adams at this email address: j1mcm0s@earthlink.net

Also, visit Jim's Website: home.earthlink.net/~j1mcm0s/