Reality check

As I'm sitting here listening to a co-worker complain about how much his new phone "sucks" compared to his old one, and remembering the stream of issues he had with that one at the time, it slowly dawns on me how radically we've lost our sense of perspective.

You've got a device that talks to satellites in space. It can talk to your computer network. You can communicate either via voice or text with anyone in the world, without wires. You can access the entirety of human knowledge (or at least what made it to the Internet) from your pocket. Take pictures. Videos. Share them with your family. Schedule meetings. Get directions, traffic status, and transit times from where you are standing to anywhere. Listen to a large pile of high quality music. Shop. Play video games. Track packages. Order movies to your house. Detect and tell you what constellation you're looking at (really.) It even (gasp) has an address book. The craziest thing though? The entire thing cost you about 200 dollars.

This sort of miracle device was nonexistent 5 short years ago, and frankly, it is FUCKING MAGICAL.

Have we always been like this? Or is it just as technology keeps improving by leaps and bounds our expectations rise in step? Did our sense of entitlement suddenly just skyrocket past what vendors can deliver in a pocket sized widget?

If it doesn't respond instantaneously every time you swipe a finger across the screen, don't complain. Instead, take a moment and remember what age you're living in. We didn't have light bulbs 130 years ago. How is it that you can be so lucky?!

Now shut up.