Addicting

THE GREAT AMERICAN SMART PHONE is the second most successful selling product in the entire history of corporate commercial capitalism, followed closely by cigarettes. Ten years ago yesterday Steve Jobs had his cute and famous smart phone coming out party press conference...this is an internet device...and a phone...since then over a billion have been sold; a staggeringly high percentage of humans have one. Smart phones and cigarettes seem about equally addictive, and both can kill you, usually slowly. I've never smoked a cigarette, and I don't have a flat screen TV or a smart phone; I avoid addictions like the plague. Life in these United States of Addictica. When I was nine the government suddenly announced that ciggies are lethal, and I took their word for it. I lost interest in television when "Gunsmoke" went off the air, and smart phones simply frighten me, like cocaine. The smart phone is among the most influential inventions in history, right up there with the wheel, campfires, cars, television, booze, and so forth. They seem to be changing the way people communicate with each other in a fundamental way. More people claim to be noticing a decline in the ability of average people to carry on an intelligent conversation face to face. I may someday acquire a flat screen TV and a smart phone. I seriously doubt I will ever smoke a cigarette.