As Paul Graham noticed earlier, computers became something like TV on the working desktop, smartphones are even a more danger. I hope in my lifetime I'll see something new to displace smartphones/tablets and make them look old like TV now, and be less dangerous and less addictive.
Isn't this a product of long commutes and sedentary living? There are only three times when I feel compelled to use my smartphone:
* When in a train/bus/car
* When I need directions
* When I feel like a game of chess
Further to this, my smartphone is also useful for:
* It's alarm clock
* Looking up facts over discussions away from home/office
I noticed my need for a smartphone dropped dramatically when I stopped commuting. I don't have push email (on purpose) and so I don't check email every time it beeps. After a month of this, I lost the automatic urge to check email.
I would do without a smartphone except for the maps function. I could buy a dedicated GPS, but the additional features, having web access anywhere, chess (trivial), alarm, push the smartphone ahead.
Get rid of your car, don't live in a sprawling city, walk places: problem solved.
I'd much rather see something new to make driver-operated motor vehicles seem old and impractical. Smartphone usage by a passenger on a bus or train doesn't pose a constant lethal threat to everyone on the road, merely a threat of inconveniencing the user when they miss their stop.
And that happened because those things have some very visible bad effects (images of cancer all over packages in Europe) and even then there are like 30% smokers on my country. Assuming shock and visible pain are the only way to end such a popular addiction it's going to be tough to end our digital ones.
But at least you showed it's possible, that's something!
Smartpones can already detect that you are travelling above a certain speed on a public road and display a notification that texting while driving is dangerous. Not something I would endorse (too many false positives), but I wouldn't be surprised to see it, either as a result of a law, or as a voluntary "enhancement".
