I’ll write a post about home computers – I’ve been around them since their start – but today I want to talk about the tiny one that is my smartphone.

More than 45% of the world’s population has one; that’s about 3.5 billion, generally divided into 3 groups: the millennials (25-40 year-olds) who use theirs about 4 hours a day, Gen X (41-55) at 3, Baby Boomers (56-75) at 2.5… and I’m smack dab in the middle of the Boomers.

I seem to use my phone for, well, everything. That’s crazy of course – I have a huge variety of interests that don’t involve it. It remains my ‘telephone’, in fact my only phone since we’ve removed our land line, and I actually talk to people on it. But I text them a whole bunch more. It’s also my mobile computer and my camera.

Its #1 gift to me is the ability to connect with my family, especially my children and now grandchildren, quickly, easily, regularly, and anywhere in the world – they’re scattered from Alaska to Texas to Scotland and all across Canada so whether by phone line or by internet, it does much to shorten the distance.

The #2 position is its service as my camera: those regular shots of people, places, events, things I do, the beauty around me, instantly stored with date and time, always available, ten shots when I only need one, no waiting for processing. It brings little spots of delight to each day.

Then there are uses #3 to #… umm… I can’t keep track… but they’re all components of its value as a full-fledged, albeit tiny, computer.

Do I use it 2.5 hours each day? I don’t think so, although frequent consultations with it and pauses for photography do eat up a lot of seconds! I have far too many other interests in life – but I’d feel pretty lost without it.

Make no mistake however – it does not control me. Apart from my husband (and his a flip-phone), most people are unaware that I have it with me. I don’t even keep the volume on for notifications. And… I am of the generation that remains quite comfortable with the aging techniques of map-reading, moving between metric and imperial measurements, cursive writing, and so on. And no one keeps more hand-written notes than me!

Millennials are the ultimate users. It’s almost an extension of their being as they move about in constant contact with those around them. We notice them everywhere with one eye on their surroundings and one eye on their phone, talking and tapping at the same time. What we don’t see as clearly is their tremendous ability to interact world-wide, be it for global meetings or demonstrations or information-gathering. I will be writing more about this.

I think smart phones are here to stay. I think they’ll be modified physically but their ability to connect worldwide won’t be. And I think it’s all pretty exciting!