Are Smartphones Necessary Anymore?

Cal Newport · 8 Jan 2019

Cal Newport did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
The problem the smartphone was invented to solve is now better solved by other devices, so its place in daily life rests on habit rather than necessity.

Their wordsThe original smartphones solved a real problem: how do I check in on work when away from my office computer? This problem is now better solved by more recent innovations.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.