Things We Don’t Do Anymore Thanks To Smartphones

The newest iPhones will be unveiled today (Tuesday). Here are some some of the things we no longer have to do thanks go smartphones.

• Wait around: Remember the days when you’d arrange to meet someone at a certain spot. You’d get there, discover they were no where to be found. Then you’d have to duck into a phone booth or stop somewhere and borrow a landline to track them down. Now if you’re running late, a quick text message gets you off the hook.

• Have a debate: Years ago, friends would enjoy a debate over a beer. Families would rally questions and answers back and forth over the dinner table. Now, there are no unanswerable questions and no unsolvable mysteries, for the mobile phones follow us everywhere and the solution to any problem is just a click and a swipe away.

• Own heavy books: No need for encyclopedias or dictionaries anymore; there are apps to find out the meaning of all the words you don’t understand.

• Learn to read maps: Even when those in-car navigation systems came out, people were still reading maps. Not anymore, because now that we all have our own portable devices with apps telling us exactly where to go, we’ll never be lost again. Our descendants will probably not contain an ounce of spatial awareness or the ability to differentiate between left and right.

• Print stuff. From maps to recipes to wallet photos, the phone is saving quite a bit of paper and ink.

• Endure awkward situations: Found yourself sitting next to some weirdo on the bus who wants to tell you about their collection of buttons? Stuck on an awkward date you can’t see a way out of? Just pretend your phone is ringing or you got a text.

• Memorize other people’s numbers: Just look at all the brain cells we’re freeing up by not having to store phone numbers in there.

• Actually make phone calls: Perhaps more than anything, mobile phones have done away with the need to speak to someone in order to get in contact.

• Listen to full albums. Now we create custom playlists and skip the songs we don’t like.

• Run till we’re tired of running. Now we track every step and every mile… then share it on social media.