This is gonna be an extremely random post about generational change that I’ve noticed while traveling all the time. I guess I’ve mentioned in my previous posts that I tend to travel a lot due to my occupation, and it becomes increasingly obvious when I need to visit the good old family (don’t we love family reunions…) and so on. So what did I notice over the last 10 years? Long trips are generally boring (unless you’re very good at entertaining yourself with various thoughts) and people often turn to technologies to kill time.
When I first began traveling because of various changes in my life, people used to engage themselves in var
ious phone games or ultimate text messaging on their cell phones. I still remember dozens of people on trains utterly engrossed in Nokia’s snake games and endless stream of incoming text messages from their parents, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends and probably even their dog (well, who knows).
Time went on, and probably in the 3rd or 4th year of my travels, I began noticing that cell phones were slowly but surely being replaced by laptops. Granted, those were rather chunky, bulky and heavy laptops, but the faster time went, the lighter they became, and the next thing you know there’s a guy with his MacBook Air sitting right next to you, watching a movie. Although I still don’t understand why would you kill your battery slowly but surely watching a movie, while you can do some work on it…
Well, either way, a few more years have passed, and although I still see a lot of people use their laptops on train or on bus, the amount of people utilizing them has obviously decreased, because… smartphones. Smartphones everywhere. Galaxies, HTCs, iPhones, LGs, Nokia Lumias… you name it
. Why bother opening a bulky (and hot) laptop, when all you need (plus the texts!) are in your hand. Not to mention that lately a lot of buses and trains have wi-fi so smartphone users definitely thrive.
Now I wonder… As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, I’m seriously thinking of getting myself a tablet computer, because smartphone is often too small for my needs and laptop is too big. I wonder how many people think the same way I do. I wonder whether the next switch in the cell phone – laptop – smartphone line will be for the tablet.
But then again, there’s something that’s always there, and something that never changed over the years. There are always people who indulge into good old reading of your genuine paper book. Cheers!
compudoumi 
Ha ha ha ha well like yourself I also travel a lot due to my job and there is only so much you can do alone to entertaining yourself so by default you end up on your phone chatting to family and friends and Skyping your dog he he he. I guess some things are enjoyed more with great company around.
Random thought: Have you noticed how we went from Huge Phones ——-> Small Phones and now we going from Small ——> Tablets (Fancier version of Big) ha ha ha ha ha ha ha – Trends just seem to keep repeating themselves they just look sexier as the years go by.
True that! At first everyone was really hyped about having the smallest phone possible, and now phones are growing big again, because of their touchscreens 😀
Some gadgets are hard to tell really… A phone-like tablet? Or a tablet-like phone 🙂 Either, it’s fun to watch how things change.