It touches on a darker issue with this whole "facebook phone" thing - namely, that 90% of the people with smartphones don't need smartphones. Ubiquitous computing is pretty awesome, but it won't be used by the majority of people capable of it. For most people, a phone is a Feely portal, giving you distraction everywhere you go. Which isn't to say we didn't have distraction everywhere we went before, just that now it's refined and honed and personalized.

I've got an offline topo maps app on my phone, as well as a calibratable RTA. I'm using my pocket computer for the shit that matters to me. I think the elitist angle is where you presume that those who aren't using the technology the same way you are are somehow inferior - much of the population can't figure out a Tom Tom, let alone waypoints.

Nobody makes you play the ponies. Granted, they spend a lot of effort making you think that it's imperative, and a lot more effort hiding the fact that the game is rigged and that the house always wins. But if you're going to invest your life's savings, know that a fool and his money are soon parted and that there's no one who cares so much about your retirement as you. Forget that at your peril.

Dunno. Life has always been about the agile preying on the slow. It's only through the development of a social conscience that we mitigate the blowback somewhat. I'm not a caveat emptor kinda guy most of the time, but any scam on earth starts with the suggestion that the mark is somehow privileged above others and follows with an invitation to malfeasance.