Comment by giraffe_lady
3 hours ago
To a contemporary person their smartphone is probably the single most functionally important object they carry with them. People have always modified their clothes around common items, and then those modifications become subject to fashion trends and then eventually tradition themselves. Think like briefcases and wallets, but also japanese inro, european snuffboxes, decorative scabbards, etc.
This is more like an ancient and near universal practice being applied to a modern tool, rather than a totally new thing in itself.
For sure, I had that thought as well, that clothing is evolving alongside the things people are needing to carry.
But, for me, it does seem like we're going in a functionally poorer direction. Just a few years ago I could have a computer I could fit in my pocket. I can't buy that anymore. The fact that people are selling modifications to these devices (cross body slings, cases with those weird pop up things on the back so you can hold it one handed) to me means we've missed the mark on design. For more than a decade we had a great one handed computer that'd disappear into my pocket. No longer.
I’m still clinging to my 3rd gen SE. My daughter had one too, but was forced to get a new phone recently because she had destroyed the old one. Got talked into a 13 mini and now I never stop hearing about how much of a pain in the ass FaceID is compared to TouchID. When Apple finally takes my button away I’ll probably go to android.
Note: the other thing I like about the SE is it was comparatively cheap. I will never get close to spending $1000 on a phone. Apple doesn’t want me anymore.