The Smartphone (The Brain’s External Hard Drive)

[Born in 1995]

I’ve always considered the advancement of language & communication as the most significant factor to humanity’s growth. The ability to share information & collaborate is one of our greatest strengths. This is why there are always huge booms of innovation whenever we upgrade our ability to communicate with inventions like the alphabet, books, the printing press, telegram, telephone, radio, TV, the internet, etc. to name a few.

As such, the smartphone is just another step in the evolution of communication. The accessibility to basically the sum of information available to people being found in our pockets is astounding. And beyond that, it allows us to conveniently store information outside of ourselves, meaning memory & brain processing is freed up to focus on other things. No need to memorize hundreds of numbers & dates when access to that info can be easily stored outside of us. In a sense, smartphones have become external hard drives for our brains.