S-M-R-T! Smart! or "End of an era"

I have made a crucial decision today and ordered a smartphone. I'm not entirely happy about the development.

I am quite aware that once I get into the swing of things my new phone and I will be BFFs; or best-friends-until-the-damn-thing-inevitably-breaks-within-two-years-or-I-simply-MUST-upgrade-to-the-latest-model-with-ludicrous-features-that-will-somehow-be-indispensable-by-then. There shall be no turning back to phones that are just, you know, phones.

I have been quite happy to have a phone that can 1.call people and 2.send text messages. Until more recently, that is, when I have occasionally seen or experienced something unusual or exciting and suddenly thought "if only I had a smart phone I could live tweet this." I know it makes me an insufferable wanker, but there you have it.

I can't help but think back to about 1999 or 2000 when I, my sister and my mother shared a mobile phone. It was handy to have if you needed to be picked up from somewhere, but that was about it. I remember, as my sister started claiming the thing more and more as her own, feeling both a bit annoyed that she did so but also baffled as to why she would. Why could she possibly want to have the option of talking to people whilst out and about? It made no sense. Now, of course, I feel quite naked and alone without my phone. Whilst on holiday I spent the 11 days without my laptop and my makeup (the fact that I need to mention these to illustrate how light and off-grid I was travelling is sickening enough in itself), but I did have my trusty Nokia C1.

There's another thing: the smartphone will bring an end to my allegiance to Nokia phones. The change is, however, ameliorated somewhat by the knowledge that I can at least transfer my nationalist techie loyalties to Rovio. This will be my new device (hard for even a lapsed fencer to go past a Kevlar-clad phone).

I remember reading that whatever technology you use in your twenties is often what you end up most comfortable with, and later technological developments can seem unnecessary or confusing. It made sense, but I genuinely did not expect the effect to be quite so literal. I've been thirty for less than four months and I'm getting twitchy and a bit irritable at my inevitable arrival in Smartphonesville. I'll sing its praises soon enough, once my inner Dowager Countess of Grantham makes peace with the transition, but in the mean time feel free to offer your condolences.