Feature: How did we live without Smartphones? ~ I Must Confab

How did we live without apps?

If I were forced to pick only three of all my technological devices and gadgets, I would probably just download the app to decide for me...

Technology is a truly wonderful thing, it's because of technology you're able to read this right now, wherever you are, despite being written in Scotland. Technology brings us the joys of movies, music, games, communication, transportation, and much much more. It helps us in an unimaginable number of ways in our every days lives. Think about a world without music to listen to, those dreadful bus journeys would become so much more tedious and aggravating... there's a good chance the hungover students would all go mad and most likely kill each other. Without video games and movies what would we do to entertain our dearest friends?

We would be forced to actually strike up an actual conversation instead of a quick chat on Facebook or simple mention on Twitter, imagine the horror! It's so easy to take technology for granted because it's become so rooted in our every day lives. A typical morning for me would involve having my phone wake me up and my using my Google calendar to remind me of what tasks I had to do today. Followed by a quick browse of the news on the Internet and then an unfulfilling boring journey to university, on an uncomfortable bus full of people I can't stand. Technology affects so many areas of our lives and makes so many activities far easier, it's pretty frightening to imagine just where we'd be without it.

Everybody and their cat has a mobile phone these days, even young children in school and the elderly. They've become a natural extension of our bodies that most of us rarely leave the house without. Long gone are the days when people owned phones just to call or text with. There are literally millions of new phones activated every month, this is something that's not likely to change for the foreseeable future unless some of Tony Stark's (Ironman) tech becomes an affordable possibility to the public. Ever since I got the gorgeous Samsung Galaxy S2 on it's UK release back in May 2011, I've been ranting and raving to friends and family alike at what an amazing phone it is. It is a reasonable leap in technology from the previous generation of phones (HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S, iPhone 4 etc.) I love everything about my phone, whether it be the ultra slick performance and the beautiful screen or even it's fairly decent-for-a-phone camera and the highly customisable interface and not to mention the dozens upon dozens of apps I've downloaded over the months. It's a fantastically built device with the software to back it up and I'm sure many people feel the same way about their various phones too, unless of course they own a blackberry, the poor things. I send dozens of texts, surf various websites regularly, update my twitter, check-in to places when I'm out with my friends and get pictures of things of interest or when I'm out. This is just some of the activities my phone goes through every day. There's also the not quite as frequent but still often used features including GPS/Directions, playing games like the highly popular Angry Birds and listening to music on the bus or at the gym. The sheer volume of features and tools at my disposal thanks to this one technological device is astounding. To think only a couple decades ago we were only texting and calling on phones like this bad boy:

I swear these were probably bulletproof. Dropping them hurt the floor more than the phone.

Without my precious smart phone what would I do if I got lost? How would people reach me? What would I do to pass time on the bus and in boring waiting rooms? How would I take random pictures of things that I find interesting that nobody else does? How would I check the weather without having to go through the tedious task of looking out my window? Sure there are various means of solving these problems such as using a map, wearing a watch, reading a book, using a map or whatever. But the fact is I can do all of this and much, much more on my phone. Style, convenience, functionality it's all there and accessible from my pocket. It's amazing just how 'out of reach' from the world people become when they find themselves temporarily phoneless for a while due to some drunken mishap that proved fatal to their phone. If they're Internet addicts reaching them shouldn't be too hard as they're only a comment or tweet away but if they're not on the Internet very often they seem to be come dead to the world until their phone comes back into play, resurrecting their social entity.

I used to function without a phone when I was younger and truth be told if I had to I could probably just manage to get by, I sure would miss it dearly though. Hell I'd probably take up hobbies like buying birds at the pet store to throw at local farmers pigs to cope with the withdrawal.

- Ben Carron