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Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future -- and Locked Us In by Brian X. Chen. Da Capo, $25, 248 pages.

The Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer

July 10, 2011

We’re plugged in for better — and for worse

BY PHILLIP MANNING

Smart phones have transformed America into an always-connected society. These phones can be used for good as well as unsavory purposes, and in “Always On,” Brian Chen offers example after example of the bipolar nature of these devices. Many of the stories are drawn from his column at Wired.com and will introduce the reader to some delightfully descriptive geek slang, such as “crowdsourcing” and “bloatware.”
Chen begins by describing the meteoritic rise of the iPhone, Apple’s entry in the smart phone market. Over 75 million have been sold in four years. One key to its success has been the over 400,000 applications (or apps) that have been written for it. The apps enable you to use your iPhone to diagnose car problems, find an address, or download instructions on how to bandage a wound. Most apps are cheap or free, and they are easily downloaded from Apple’s App Store. In fact, the most important app of all -- the real killer app -- is the App Store itself, a platform built by Apple.
Chen recounts stories that emphasize the beneficial aspects of living in an always-connected world. Dan Wooley, for example, was badly injured and trapped in the rubble of a hotel during the Haitian earthquake. He used his iPhone to access first-aid instructions to patch himself up. This app, Chen says, “turned him into an amateur medic that helped him survive.”
Chen also touches on the problems associated with the always-on world, especially the jarring, rapid-fire nature of information on the Internet, now accessible anywhere-anytime with a smart phone. He cites several studies but concludes that not enough data are available to draw firm conclusions about the effect of the ready-access Internet on our brains. (This topic was covered in greater depth and more pessimistically by Nicholas Carr in his book “The Shallows.”)
One agreed-upon negative associated with the always-on world is the loss of privacy. A too-hasty “send” on your iPhone can circle the world in minutes. A recent example was the discovery of private photographs taken with and transmitted over a smart phone. After the embarrassing photos were made public, a hurricane of publicity forced the resignation of former New York Representative Anthony Weiner.
According to Chen, invasions of privacy are the price we pay for living in an always-on world. Furthermore, he concludes, “we already seem to be getting used to the modern trade of giving up privacy, control, and some freedom in exchange for anything-anytime-anywhere.”

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