The smartphone between the present and the future: Five changes

Abstract

The first change that I point out here is the ongoing capability of the mobile phone (and now the smartphone) to colonize everyday life. This dominance of the smartphone over other technologies is due to its closeness to the human body, already described in the early 2000s (Oksman & Rautiainen, 2002). This fact explains not only its supremacy but also the radical nature of the social changes it has facilitated. The smartphone makes an ever-increasing number of societies’ domains available for consumption while people are on the move or wherever they happen to be at the moment (Vorderer et al., 2018). This also means that we are available for work and production wherever we might be (Mullan & Wajcman, 2017). Being a metamedium (Humphreys et al., 2018; Jensen, 2016), the smartphone also effortlessly incorporates into itself other technologies and platforms (e.g., the computer, camera, internet, radio, television, newspapers, etc.). We can speak, write, read, learn, do mathematical operations, take photographs and videos, control their schedules, coordinate with others, express emotions, pray, check calendars, search for places, get information (and archive it), and also communicate. We can also access social media, read the news, do banking and ecommerce, play games, and get health data. The smartphone offers an incredible number of opportunities to redesign the attitudes, habits, routines, and behaviors of everyday life. The implications of our use affect many dimensions of human existence: the ontological as well as the anthropological. For example, not only do we have new ways to keep our memories, but we develop another relationship with our memories (Humphreys, 2018; Özkul & Humphreys,