Smartphones

I am old enough now that I am able to say, "I remember when..." but it may still sound silly. Regardless of that, I remember when the iPhone first came out, and it was a big thing. I received a 3G for my birthday the next year from my mom. I was so enthralled by it- this smooth flawless child of technology with unlimited capabilities. I carefully took it out of the box and turned it in my hands, looking for the "On/Off" button. It really was like nothing I had seen before. It literally took me at least five minutes of apishly inspecting it before I pushed the inverted round button with the subtle square on it and the brilliant display of Earth appeared with the (now all too familiar) "Slide to Unlock" undulating with light.
...7 years later...
My 15 month old is squirming around the bed at nap time and nonchalantly sits up, picks up my iPhone, presses the home button and changes the song on the iPod portion of the lock screen. This motion is now automatic for me- sort of intuitive, but how did that come to be? Since when did intuition translate into telephones? Somehow it has. This generation is growing up with some of the craziest technology and thinks nothing of it. My little one knows how to get to the voice control option that I still can't seem to figure out. It's a little embarrassing frankly. I even have a "book" for her on my phone that she insists upon watching by making the sign for cat in ASL ("Be Big" has kitties telling the story). What did we fill our time with before fiddling with the apps on our phones like Angry Birds and digital bubble wrap? How many minutes can one waste popping plastic bubbles that kind of do, and kind of don't exist? Apparently a lot. I sure did, until I deleted the app. Gone, into exile in the land of unwanted apps wherever that is (or isn't).
I think that time used to be filled with conversations with other humans. Or watching TV. Lol.