I remember from my childhood the old Get Smart television show that featured the secret agent and his many gadgets. Little did I know that the idea of a “shoe phone” would eventually become a reality. The Smart Phone of today has gone through many progressions to arrive where it is today and is primed for where it will go next.
McLuhan's four laws of media illustrate this progression in terms of what the new technology enhances and obsoletes, what it rekindles from the past and what it leads to in the future.(Thornburg, 2008). The Smart Phone is just that, it’s smart. It enhances regular PDA and cell phone technology because it integrates a portable telephone with the ability to store and manage large amounts of information. It enhances ones ability to communicate and be productive without being tethered to the office or home. Regular cell phones and PDA’s are obsoleted because the new Smart Phones integrate the features that are unique to the cell phone and PDA and adds access to the internet. All of these functions have taken over the classic job of a secretary. The secretary’s job was to keep her boss organized, scheduled, and in communication with those who needed him. Now, the Smart Phone is like having your own secretary right at your fingertips. Thornburg (2008) characterizes Mcluhan’s idea by indicating that “every technology extends or amplifies some organ or faculty of the user” (p. 2). I believe that smart phone technology will follow this idea. I predict that eventually we will be able to have a chip implanted in us that serves as a receiver. We will be able to use our brain to communicate and retrieve the information that is stored or that we are seeking. Communication and information retrieval systems will be enhanced by becoming an integrated part of our bodies.
The idea of the “shoe phone” seemed so far out when I think back to those days of my childhood. While a phone in a shoe did not ever catch on, the idea did, and it has advanced even further than I would have ever expected. I predict that the Smart Phone technology will continue to transform itself into an even more integrative tool inserted into the body that will become as commonplace as contact lenses or plastic surgery is today.
References
Thornburg, D. D. (2008). Emerging technologies and Mcluhan’s Laws of Media. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
