Published Spring 2024
When Apple unveiled the first iPhone in January 2007, most ordinary consumers rolled their eyes — ”why would I need a phone to do all that?” Before long, however, Americans were buying smartphones in droves. By 2013, smartphones had overtaken “dumb phones” in global market share for the first time; they have never looked back.
Initially, the great attraction of smartphones was their ability to combine standard call and text features with access to every corner of the digital world in one convenient, handheld device. Email, online shopping, YouTube, you name it — anything you wanted to do on the internet, you could now do from your phone. Smartphones also came with built-in cameras, obviating the need to carry around a digital camera and enabling users to seamlessly upload and share pictures with one another.
Aside from the camera feature, early smartphones did not do much to bridge the divide between the digital and analog worlds: Anything one could not do (or did not want to do) online required the use of legs, arms, and mouths, not just thumbs. People walked to the store, grabbed merchandise, and spoke to the cashier to complete their transaction. The initial smartphone offered, in short, a convenient add-on to the transactions and interactions of everyday life (and frequently a welcome escape — or an unhealthy distraction — from them). But those who preferred to live their lives without one could still function in society.
As the iPhone celebrated its 10th anniversary, however, a change was clearly underway: Smartphones were increasingly bridging the digital and analog divide, functioning as mediators to the physical world around us. With Uber, you could call a cab using your smartphone; soon you couldn’t call one any other way. With mobile ordering, you no longer had to stand in line and talk to a human being to obtain your food. With the quick-response (QR) code, you no longer had to read informational signs and maps and commit their contents to memory. The message was increasingly clear: If you wanted to participate in the modern economy, you had better buy a smartphone.
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Brad Littlejohn, Ph.D., is a Fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping public leaders understand the intellectual and historical foundations of our current breakdown of public trust, social cohesion, and sound governance. His research investigates shifting understandings of the nature of freedom and authority, and how a more full-orbed conception of freedom, rooted in the Christian tradition, can inform policy that respects both the dignity of the individual and the urgency of the common good. He also serves as President of the Davenant Institute.
