Drowning in the shallows
ANN CROTTY: The more we use smartphones the less we communicate
I’m a late adapter who is trapped by new technology. And no matter how many emojis or pictures you use it doesn’t feel quite the same, it’s all too slick and impersonal
A friend recently reprimanded me for not staying in touch. She’s a good friend so the reprimand wasn’t lightly delivered or received. My initial indignation was curbed by a cursory mental audit of my communications; she was right.I could have blamed it on my move to Cape Town where friendliness (at least of the Gauteng variety) is discouraged. But that seemed a bit far fetched. After a little more scrutiny I realised it wasn’t Cape Town’s fault at all, it was Steve Jobs.It was a rather shocking realisation. A brilliant but flawed individual whom I’d never met has had a dramatic impact on my daily life and in a remarkably short time. This puts Jobs up there with Joe Woodland, who invented the barcode.This realisation struck me on the 10th anniversary of the introduction of Apple’s smartphone.Just as the barcode has changed shopping and enabled the growth of multinational retail groups, the smartphone has changed personal communication and enabled the growth of new mega-industries.Som...
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