| I keep catching myself wondering lately whether I’m getting dumber, or whether smartphones are actually getting worse. It sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud, but I don’t think it’s just me. Phones used to be for mobile communication. That was the point. You made a call, you sent a text, and if you were lucky, there was a tiny game or a truly dreadful camera. They weren’t clever, they weren’t fast, but they were understandable. You learned how they worked once, and that knowledge stayed useful. Now everything is smoother, faster, zoomier, shinier. And somehow, more annoying. Updates arrive constantly, and they rarely feel like improvements. Something that worked fine yesterday suddenly doesn’t. A setting has moved. A feature has vanished. The phone insists it knows better than you do. You update because you’re told it’s essential, and then spend ten minutes wondering why something basic has stopped behaving the way it always has. What really gets me is that phones aren’t actually built around people anymore. They’re platforms. They want your attention, your habits, your data, your time. Calls and texts feel almost incidental now, like legacy features hanging on out of politeness. Everything else is layered on top, nudging you to engage, scroll, subscribe, and upgrade. Simplicity doesn’t seem to fit into that model very well. I think that’s why the complexity feels so hostile. It isn’t accidental. A phone that makes calls, sends texts, and lasts ages on one charge would be a lovely thing to own, but it wouldn’t generate much profit. So instead, we get endless features, endless tweaks, endless “improvements” that mainly serve systems rather than the person holding the device. Older phones get dragged along with updates they were never designed for, and if things slow down or feel clunky, well, there’s always a newer model waiting. And no, I don’t think this is nostalgia talking. I don’t miss bad cameras or tiny screens. I miss stability. I miss learning how something works and trusting that it will still work the same way next week. There’s a strange trade-off happening where we’ve gained power but lost clarity, gained speed but lost calm. The irony is that these are the most advanced phones ever made, yet they often feel worse as actual phones. So maybe I’m not getting stupider after all. Perhaps I’m just noticing the gap between what technology could be — quiet, helpful, reliable — and what it’s currently incentivised to be. And seeing that feels less like decline and more like waking up. |
Are Smartphones Getting Dumber… or Am I?
Earthly Comforts 
I’m always unaware of any changes until I read about them. My phone is only used for communication (and photos tho I do miss my ‘real’ camera). So unaware am I that I never noticed Apple removed the home screen button until I saw an article on how to put it back LOL which I did – it seems I am not good at flicking.
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I still use a simple flip phone. I make calls and do some texting on it. Yes, that’s the rebel in me. I have never had a smart phone my only internet connection is through my laptop.
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