Being able to access the Internet from your phone can be a useful tool. Getting needed information quickly helps you make sound decisions. It can help you if you are lost. It can lead you in the right direction.
For all this usefulness, being able to pick up your smartphone (I prefer the iPhone but the inferior BlackBerry will also do) has ended a once enjoyable activity.
Mobile Google has brought an end to the bar room debate.
For centuries people would discuss unimportant but interesting issues for hours over beer. Sides would be taken and an interesting discussion would ensue. Often the truth would not be found until sometime later, which would set off another interesting but non-critical debate.
This used to be the best part of getting together for beer.
Alas, it's gone. Invariably, someone will pick up their phone and Google the issue. What used to fill an evening is now answered instantly. The entertainment is gone.
I know that having instant access to a huge body of knowledge can enhance our lives, it can help in many ways, but anything with this much ability to make change, will invariably have unintended consequences. I'm not saying that the loss of the bar room debate is the first sign of the end of civilization but it is a change and it is some thing that I miss.
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