Could smartphones or tablets replace everything else?

[ToroidalBoat]

Could smartphones and tablets replace all media they could replace, reducing the replaced to a novelty?

Can you imagine a future where:

- No one reads physical books anymore because books can be read on smartphones or tablets?

- No one draws or paints traditionally anymore because art can be made on a smartphone or tablet?

- No one takes pictures with cameras because of smartphone or tablet cameras (kinda already there IRL)?

- No one watches TV or plays videos from physical media like DVDs anymore because smartphone or tablet?

- No one plays vidya on a console because of gaming on smartphone or tablet?

- No one gathers IRL anymore unless it can't be done with a smartphone or tablet?

You get the idea. It seems like smartphone and social media cultures are already "cancelling real life", but do you think pretty much all real life could be replaced by smartphones or tablets - or worse, "VR" - some day? It would be a very cybernetic future.

 

[Si vis pacem para bellum]

We're already there in most ways. People were reaching towards this forever. Teenagers sitting on phones for hours after school, traditional places kids hang out are gone. I know you're thinking but why are you focusing on kids, I mean that's where you learn these habits and they form your future reality and assumptions. Kids now have phones at 8yo pretty commonly where I live. If phones can do more over time and they're using their "everything device" to solve a wide variety of problems they'll merely continue to do so except where they deviate for nostalgia reasons. I mean look at the weird things people use them for now, recording streams, photo editing, podcast management, all forms of communication and entertainment, etc. If you're a kid and you want to solve a problem the app store has an ad supported solution.

This isn't a bad thing, I don't like it much personally but I realize it's an in-between step. Phones won't replace all forever, but it's a good first step of having all that tech in your pocket. I think the first thing to go might be the phone itself. People hate calls and they are seen as a nuisance to so many that they might want all that good stuff without the calls themselves. Cellular providers will be pivoting, we'll have a range of calling capable but not primarily phone handsets I think in different sizes and power. The consooomer PC market of hardcore gamer will find a foothold in these devices to oversell shit hardware to retards as they do and those early supporters will finance the devices beyond early adopter into their last steps of R&D which then become effectively varieties of handheld tablets with many focused towards more specific groups of concern. Expect a token privacy or security version that boasts full app control because these hardware manufacturers really want you to forget they build backdoors into these things and fixate on decade old app controls no one bothered to learn to demonize apps themselves.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

No one reads physical books anymore because books can be read on smartphones or tablets?

Plenty of people prefer physical copies of books over digital. It's less straining on the eyes and people like physical media that they actually own.

No one draws or paints traditionally anymore because art can be made on a smartphone or tablet?

While digital art has seen a boom. It so far hasn't replace nor downgrades regular artists in anyway and doesn't seem to be able to doesn't anytime soon.

No one takes pictures with cameras because of smartphone or tablet cameras (kinda already there IRL)?

Actual professional photographers prefer digital cameras and even older pre digital ones over tablet cameras due to quality reasons.

No one watches TV or plays videos from physical media like DVDs anymore because smartphone or tablet?

- No one plays vidya on a console because of gaming on smartphone or tablet?

A lot of people defend physical media because then they actually own something. Also I guess your into mobile games? Those aren't real video games.

- No one gathers IRL anymore unless it can't be done with a smartphone or tablet?

You get the idea. It seems like smartphone and social media cultures are already "cancelling real life", but do you think pretty much all real life could be replaced by smartphones or tablets - or worse, "VR" - some day? It would be a very cybernetic future.

I think this is true for a lot of people and it's a problem that is getting worse.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

@Si vis pacem para bellum: I think it's a bad thing that life is getting so cybernetic because of "everything device".

@Rome's rightful successor: I'm not into mobile gaming.

I never saw the appeal of mobile "gaming." You play on a tiny plastic rectangle your hands cover all the time because there's only touchscreen controls. And of course there's all the BS with "microtransactions," "DLC," and over-reliance on the internet.

(can't quote posts here for some reason)

 

[Sage In All Fields]

No, having no distinction between anything you do makes you literally insane and unable to concentrate on any one task.

 

[Boris Blank's glass eye]

No. For general media consumption? Maybe. However, they're still unsuited for any kind of productivity - there wouldn't be smart pens and keyboard covers if they weren't.

 

[The Spice boi]

You could argue that this is the ultimate goal of civilization: To just live in a simulated reality where all your needs are fulfilled and there is no danger ever. Smartphones are just one small step on the way to that goal.

Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you man

 

[AssignedEva]

I'd say people are getting more comfortable with shifting more of their socialising over to tech (boosted by the pandemic) but there's a definable upper limit for normal people.

30 years ago you might habitually go down the pub, because that was basically the only way to stay in touch with friends beyond phone calls (and you wouldn't know if they were in) whereas now you can have group whatsapps or discord servers for day to day nattering. But people still want to hang out irl - nightclubs aren't empty by any stretch of the imagination - and despite all those scare pieces about Zoomers not having sex, they're still going to want to bang.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

(can't quote posts here for some reason)

There's a bug disabling the feature when posts go over a certain length, I think. Somebody said 1,000 characters, dunno.

 

[Lemmingwise]

No one reads physical books anymore because books can be read on smartphones or tablets?

I've been reading from an ereader and it gives the ability to lug around 100s of books. It also allows me to download obscure and wrongthink books that I would not be able to get otherwise, like the jewish written blood libel book and other books discontinued.

I'm sure at some point there will be the possibility for them to delete your books from your device, but we're not there yet.

 

[Realistic Elephant]

What's interesting to consider is if something happened and the means to recover or preserve all of this digital information is lost, this era could be viewed by future historians as a literal Dark Age. There would be a steady decrease in available written historical and literary sources during the period.

 

[PFM]

Smartphones are just little computers with touchscreens. If you connect a smartphone to a keyboard and external monitor is it still a smartphone? If yes then yeah probably.

 

[Cyclonus]

Playing video games without physical controls is like having sex with a stainless steel condom.

 

[ProtonMailManTheSequel]

No.

Smart phones are for dumb people.

Books don't track you and help the FBI arrest you.
Easels and paint don't get hacked by your ex-wife and infested with child porn.
My camera doesn't turn itself on start making a :police siren noise, and start flashing photos of me half asleep to my ex in China.
I can fuck someone "IRL" without a secret recording of the whole process being made.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

 

[byuu]

Smartphones are just little computers with touchscreens. If you connect a smartphone to a keyboard and external monitor is it still a smartphone? If yes then yeah probably.

They're more like consoles.
Intentionally crippled computers that you don't really own where the manufacturer has an excessive amount of control over.
Devices where you need to jump through a ton of hoops to install shit on that the manufacturer doesn't approve of.

 

[Bonesjones]

As someone who grew up on the internet, you eventually realize it is a poor facsimile of real human interaction. There is a level of gratification beyond what a computer and screen can do for you. Its just computers are designed to trick you. Talking to a Markov bot might be fun for a few minutes but then you notice it's not a real person and can be manipulated into saying what you want.

 

[PFM]

They're more like consoles.
Intentionally crippled computers that you don't really own where the manufacturer has an excessive amount of control over.
Devices where you need to jump through a ton of hoops to install shit on that the manufacturer doesn't approve of.

That's not what defines a smartphone, though. "Open" smartphones exist.

 

[Sandraker]

Don't think it'll replace a large majority of things, but its uses become more and more convenient.

You can have a phone camera, but it would never hit the details that something like a Nikon or Canon is specifically designed to do.
Traditional art will still have a appeal to it that can't fully be replicated by digital including the raw skill that comes with it.
Games have a niche on phones, but ultimately most people would be willing to plug a controller into a pc or console that it was designed for along with giving them the full experience.

As much as media and every other knuckles dragging media addict try to tell you, it can't replace sentimental interactions with other people. People who buy into that are broken, but simply can't let go of their half ass online interactions that in the long run amounts to less than what they think it does. Does a heart reaction really means that your 5 year old FB friend give a shit beyond those mere moments? Probably not since they're going to scroll down milliseconds later to do the same thing to a cat video and the next phony shitstain that lives solely thru internet interactions.

At the end of the day smartphones are just very convenient watered down computers. Jack of trades master of none, but people tend to over value these things

 

[byuu]

That's not what defines a smartphone, though. "Open" smartphones exist.

"Open" consoles exist too.
But both have like 0.0001% market share and have no relevancy.

 

[Saint Alphonsus]

2020-present is the beta test for what I call "obsidian monolith hell." Those who get sucked into it are beyond help and need divine intervention for salvation.