Oh, Glorious Future

There's something about having your cell phone out of comission that makes you feel absolutely helpless. In this case, it was my iPhone, and even just having it down for a day was traumatic. How do you call anyone? What if you get lost and need your map? What if you have to check Facebook to see what your friend had for breakfast since she posts that every day and amazingly gets 18 comments and at least ten "likes"?

But the interesting thing about this sense of helplessness is that it wasn't all that long ago that I had no cell phone at all (let alone one that sends texts, takes photos, and can figure out what song is playing on the stereo at the bar) and never felt a big emptyness in my life. Somehow, without a cell phone, I was able to actually arrange airport pickups and meet friends out for dinner. Somehow, I was able to find where I was going with just printed directions. Oh, how dependency has weakened me!

But rather than focus on the technology-dependent blob that I have become, I instead will think about what new essential device will come about in the next decade that will make me stop and wonder how back in 2010 I was able to get by without it. Some newfangled scooter? An electronic food tester? A hangover cure?