In the words of Oscar Wilde "We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities." In my working days, I used to be known as the gadget man. My coworkers couldn’t wait until I bought the newest gadget and then they would make an offer to buy the gadget that I had replaced. That was before EBay, but I would have never needed their services anyway, because I always had willing buyers.
I guess that I started with a daily planner/calculator, moved up to the Tandy 100, then the personal computer, from there to the Palm Pilot and finally to the iPhone and iPad. I have this uncontrollable desire to have information at my fingertips at all times. I'm not that fond of the words “I have no idea." I don't carry my Medicare or Social Security cards in my wallet, but I do have a picture of those cards on my phone. My whole medical, personal, and financial information is on my iPhone. My skeptic brother-in-law asked me the obvious question" what if you lose your phone?" I then replied" I still have the originals at home, and I have an app on my wife's iPhone and on my iPad called” Find Me'" which will give the addresses of the current position of the lost device; if I believe someone has stolen it, I have an option to delete the phone's data. I don't have to worry about re inputting all that info into a new phone because it's all backed up on iTunes.
I'm not constantly on my iPhone or my iPad, even though one or, both are always with me. For example, I know my doctor has a lot of patients, so I make good use of my 15 minutes by accurately answering his questions from the information I've cataloged on my iPhone. It may be my monthly glucose readings averages, blood-pressure readings, and copies of my last blood tests which are stored on my iPhone. I even let him know when it's time for my yearly eye checkup and flu shot. I guess I could've written all that down, but then it would be hard for me to justify having an iPhone...:-)
The smart phone has replaced the land line, phone books, standard books, the stand alone camera, voice recorder,GPS,planners,address books, pen and paper, photo albums, and in some cases fax machines, computers, and television. The owner of Newsweek thinks that 70 million people will own tables by the end of next year, so they will no longer publish their printed magazine. I've been reading the magazine on my iPad for a long time because of the convenience. I've been told that newsstands are hard to find in the larger cities, because they are going the way of the old phone booths.
I carry my 16" Targus case (my wife jokingly calls it my purse) just about everywhere I go because I never know when I'm going to going to need a utility knife, small flashlight, recorder pen and pad, or my iPad or iPhone. Although I was never in the Cub or Boys scouts, I've always liked their motto" Be prepared."