We now live in a world in which smartphones have become a must ― an object you must carry at all times no matter where you go. During the Joseon Dynasty, our ancestors almost always carried a long bamboo smoking pipe wherever they went. But that was primarily for the pleasures of inhaling nicotine and exhaling stress. Of course, smartphones, too, provide entertainment and even narcotic pleasures if you’re an addict. Unlike traditional smoking pipes, however, smartphones keep us busy all day long and stress us out due to the massive dissemination of information.

Yet they are indispensable. Even when we go to bed at night, we put our phone on our nightstand to serve as an alarm. Indeed, smartphones have become something we cannot do without.

Whenever I go to a business meeting these days, I notice nearly everyone has his or her smartphone out, either busily searching for information or even texting during the conference. Recently, I gave a talk to a group of people and found a disheartening phenomenon; most people in the audience were holding a smartphone or an iPad in their hands, constantly checking their mail and responding to incoming text messages. When I talked to a group of foreign visitors a few days ago, I noticed even my interpreter was texting during my speech.

Even when I want to talk with my son nowadays, he is always moving his fingers on the touchscreen of his iPhone and I can only fit in a word when he pauses. In the past, sons used to complain, “You are so busy that you never listen to me, Dad!” Now it is fathers who must complain: “You are so busy with your smartphone that you never listen to me, son!” And sons will retort: “You always interfere with me whenever I want to do something with my smartphone, Dad!” When I lamented about the situation, someone came up with hilarious comment: “Well, these days, kids are texting even while being scolded,” he said. “Perhaps they are texting to their friends: ‘My old man is killing me.’”

In fact, smartphones have become indispensable as a primary source of information, entertainment and communications these days. For example, smartphones and iPads have successfully replaced the library, books, dictionaries and encyclopedias. They have also replaced stereos, televisions and movie theaters by providing music, movies and dramas. In addition, smartphones substitute cameras, telephones, navigators and computers. They also serve as notepads, news sources and social networking devices.

The truth is that smartphones have become an extension of our brains, without which we cannot function properly. Without a smartphone, therefore, we become powerless, restless and helpless. Indeed, smartphones are our miniature world and microcosm, inside of which we spend half our lives.

Through our smartphone, we can also be connected to everyone and everything. Without Facebook and Twitter which we can access with our smartphone, we will not only be cut off from indispensable information, but also lose our connections with friends and colleagues, and end up as social pariahs. It is no wonder we want to bring our smartphones no matter where we are and keep it on, waiting for signals and texts that come in from all directions.

As soon as you turn off your smartphones, therefore, you essentially become blind, deaf and mute. That is why young people are reluctant to turn off their smartphones. To them, turning off their smartphones are like shutting off the life-sustaining device connected to you. The novelist Kim Young-ha, a famous novelist who has successfully explored the new sensibilities and agonies of the smartphone generation, told me a few days ago that youngsters these days are reluctant to go to the movies. The reason is simple. They do not like turning off their smartphones for two hours. Anything can happen during the two hours they are cut off from the network. Losing access to the network is a terrible nightmare today’s young people cannot possibly tolerate.

In addition, today’s youngsters cannot tolerate slow tempo and tediousness. Due to the incredible speed of electronic devices, young people have become extremely impatient; experts say that young people’s maximum attention span often does not exceed five minutes. American youth used to have an attention span of 15 minutes since television commercials would interrupt programming every 15 minutes. Today, however, their ability to focus on one thing has been reduced to five minutes, thanks to electronic devices such as smartphones, iPads and computers. Kim also asserts that when watching YouTube, viewers immediately tune to another clip if the one they are watching exceeds five minutes. That is why even Psy’s popular “Gangnam Style” music video runs less than six minutes.

The world is rapidly and radically changing and we have to embrace the inevitable evolution. Perhaps my audience was taking notes on my lecture, not texting, for smartphones have replaced notebooks these days. Woe to the old timers like me! Those who do not belong to the age of smartphones are doomed to become extinct.

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. ― Ed.