I am less well-informed?Not really. Information made its way to me, just slightly less instantly. My computer still offered news sites, newsletters and social media rubbernecking. Deprived of the smartphone and its apps was sometimes highly inconvenient: I’ve got an electric vehicle, and upon pulling into a public charger, low on miles, realized that I could not log into the charger without a smartphone app. Planning ahead was a necessity without Google Maps because I typically use it to get anywhere more than 15 minutes away. I had to look up routes in advance and memorize the directions, reinvigorating a navigational part of the brain that had long been neglected. I received a robot vacuum for Christmas that could only be set up with an iPhone app. Midway through the month, I got an “alert” email from my bank: I’d overdrawn my checking account. I usually monitor my balance on the bank’s smartphone app and move money from a high-yield savings account when it’s getting low. I’d forgotten about this and had also been procrastinating on a trip to the bank to deposit a paper check — something I usually do by snapping a photo of it in the mobile app. Whoops! Many of my online accounts, including The New York Times one that allows me to sign into its content management system to draft stories, require two-factor authentication via a smartphone app.
