POSTED July 02, 2012

will mobile phones replace cigarettes?⚓

Ian Bogost prognosticates on days where mobile phones will face the same social stigma as cigarettes.  

I still remember when I’d go to dinner with my grandmother at Po’ Folks and the hostess would ask if we wanted smoking or non-smoking.  I learned early on that there was always an open seat in smoking section, but I didn’t understand why.  My mom smoked and my aunt smoked, so it all just seemed normal to me.

Today, I often sit across from people at the dinner table with their heads down.  They are staring into a glowing screen, consuming bytes of information, while I bite away at my meal.  But is this a necessarily a bad thing?

I’m still on the fence, but the only place I can’t reliably find someone on a phone is between 0-10,000 feet, flying the friendly skies — but there are no cigarettes up there either.