Smartphones

A favorite passage from my brother Glenn Adamson's book "Fewer, Better Things" discussed on last week's bonus episode:

"Every year smartphones absorb more and more functionality into their taut, hard little bodies, superseding the role of other objects in our lives. It's not that we are uninterested in digital devices as physical artifacts. Their every curve, button, and feature is a matter of public interest; their arrival at product launches is keenly anticipated, like the births of royal children. Designers compete to make them ever smaller, ever lighter, ever smoother. The problem is that, as we come to depend on these mysterious machines more and more, we are less and less aware of our physical environment. We don't even understand how the phones themselves are made, or how they work. They are sealed off from us, performing their tricks as if by magic. To many people, this feels like progress -- even freedom. No longer weighed down by things, we hope to emerge bright and blinking into a new world."