I, Smartphoniac

Mark Penn may not have acquitted himself particularly well in his previous job as chief pollster and strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, but I’d say he’s onto something in his Wall Street Journal op-ed this week on "smartphoniacs."

You know the type: people who literally can’t go two minutes without whipping out their phone to check e-mail, messages, news headlines, sports scores, or any of the other millions of things the phones can do. Whether it’s on a date or in a movie, standing in the supermarket line at a urinal, you can see them everywhere.

I should know; I am one.

Is it rude? Of course it is. But it’s hard to stop.

Remember when the problem was that people talked on their cell phones everywhere? Smartphone addiction may be less annoying- it’s more than just talking, and usually silent- but it’s both much more prevalent and more distracting. 

Smartphones have done an amazing thing- they’ve made it impossible to ever be bored again. Not doing anything? You’ve got a gadget in your pocket that can entertain you in about 4 billion different ways! And I’m addicted enough to my phone, and I have a crappy, three-year-old Motorola Q. I can only imagine how bad it would get if I actually had a more modern smartphone.

Both of my parents have iPhones; my dad recently told me it’s the greatest gadget he’s ever used in his life, although I’m guessing between them they only know how to use about 25 percent of the phone’s functions. They used to pick on me for never being able to put my phone down, but now that they have their own, they’ve got the bug as well. The same goes for my wife, that is, until she got a BlackBerry a few weeks ago.

So what are the rules for using your smartphone? Unless you’re expecting an important call or email, I wouldn’t advise taking it out in a meeting or while out to dinner. While walking down the street isn’t the best time either. Penn also writes about smartphoning while driving; this is not a good idea. I even have one friend who regularly updates her Facebook status while driving ("Cindy is… finally out of traffic and speeding home!")

But the problem is, I know you’re not supposed to do these things and would frown on others doing them, yet I’ve done all of them, and most people I know with smartphones have, too. What can we do, we’re addicts.