The Tools, The Tasks, And The Space To Perform Them

When people say 'Smartphones are wonderful things'
they don't say it as often as the adverts for the phones
that manufactures put out to support the illusion
of progress that lies behind popular turbo-capitalism.

And smartphones do have design features that I like,
more than their equivalents on older designs of mobile,
like the ease of the keypad and the message writing process.

But this is where I part company with the rest of the human race,
People say that the 'smart' in smartphone comes from how many tasks
it can perform, how many programmes such a small machine can store.

In 1978 I bought one of the new range of calculators.
It could perform thirty four different maths processes
including the bane of every maths student, logarithms.
I used it for at most eight of those functions,
and half of those eight I practiced in my head,
to maintain my speed of doing mental arithmetic.

If a smartphones are like swiss army knives
-so many apps and functions in so small a machine
only so many of which can operate simultaneously-
then does that make an old fashioned laptop
more like a kitchen, with more space for the blades?
You decide what space you need to use the apps
that manufacturers insist are 'the future' for today.

Tomorrow the apps might change,
but knowing the space you need
to use them in comfort remains your constant.