It used to be that we imagined that our mobile phones would be for us to talk to each other. Now, our mobile phones are there to talk to us.
Early on, Android phones were pitched as kind of ersatz iPhones, devices that could do most of what an iPhone did – but were available on carriers other than AT&T, a relatively horrible network that was the biggest source of complaints about Apple’s transformative device.
It wasn’t not being famous any more, or even not being a recording artist. It was having nobody who needed me, no phones ringing, nothing to do. Because I’m still too young to do nothing. I was only 24 when all that happened. Now, at 40, I feel I’ve got more to give than I ever have.
When mobile phones came out, they were a status symbol. Now the status symbol is having someone to manage your mobile phone for you.
I think 2012 is the year when consumers all around the world start saying no to feature phones and start saying yes to smartphones.
My grandfather left Cuba when Castro came into power and literally left everything. He had two suitcases and two kids and showed up in New Jersey and waited for my uncle to meet up with him. Imagine – there were no cell phones back then!
I can’t give money away to buy listeners. I can’t pay listeners off with phones or food stamps or anything. I can’t come by my audience by buying it.
I’m not complaining about my cell phone – all my friends are in there, and all my favorite songs and all my favorite Benedict Cumberbatch GIFs; I don’t want to give it up. But cell phones are the worst for talking on the phone.
I have a SIM card ejector tool everywhere I go. It’s probably not a normal thing to have, but as a guy who’s moving between phones often, I kind of have to have one.
The international limit on mobile texting, or SMS, is 160 characters. We wanted Twitter to be entirely readable and writable on every single one of the over five billion mobile phones on this planet, because they all have SMS built in. So we said it has to be within 160 characters, all the tweets.
A smartphone is a computer – it’s not built using a computer – the job it does is the job of being a computer. So, everything we say about computers, that the software you run should be free – you should insist on that – applies to smart phones just the same. And likewise to those tablets.
Woodstock happened in August 1969, long before the Internet and mobile phones made it possible to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere. It was a time when we weren’t able to witness world events or the horrors of war live on 24-hour news channels.
I am a huge advocate for anti-bullying in our youth. What I have seen with the rise of social media is that children are not facing bullying on a playground, they are facing it on their cell phones.
Email, instant messaging, and cell phones give us fabulous communication ability, but because we live and work in our own little worlds, that communication is totally disorganized.
Spare a thought for the poor introverts among us. In a world of party animals and glad-handers, they’re the ones who stand by the punch bowl. In a world of mixers and pub crawls, they prefer to stay home with a book. Everywhere around them, cell phones ring and e-mails chime and they just want a little quiet.
My only piece of advice is that all of you consider every single text and Snapchat that you ever make as also being shared with your partner, because they all check your phones all the time – trust me on this one.
But I’m acutely aware that the possibility of fraud is even more prevalent in today’s world because of the Internet and cell phones and the opportunity for instant communication with strangers.
One of my great loves is golf. When I am in L.A., I like to play with a few close friends: no phones, no distractions, the great outdoors and the chance to bet some money to keep it interesting.
Before mobile phones, I used to call my parents from a phone box and reverse the charges.
Our generation, unfortunately, is stuck to our phones – and, like, Twitter – constantly, which I have no problem with. I’d say we’re not describing the children of America or anything like that, but there is something to take from it: It is kind of sad how we can’t go thirty minutes without checking our phone.
I carry a small handbag and it has cash and credit cards, phones, hair ties and lip balm.
I regularly take my entrepreneurship students out walking because I want to get them in the habit of noticing and thinking about what they notice. They have to leave their phones behind to learn the basic lesson: Be where you are.
