In the palm of our hands lies the world, condensed into a sleek device that grants us instant access to information, connection, and convenience. With a tap, we communicate across oceans, navigate cities with ease, and carry the sum of human knowledge in our pockets. It’s the tool that simplifies our lives, promising efficiency and endless possibilities… or is it? insert vsauce music

Day to day, I see my colleagues and people around me using their smartphones with ease—flying through tabs in their web browsers, reading and annotating PDFs, taking notes, and perhaps most impressively, not being thrown off by auto completion. And I just don’t get it. Other than sending messages and wasting time on Reddit, I don’t really use my smartphone that much. For me, it’s cumbersome to use, even for text messages. I just prefer using the desktop versions. Am I the crazy one?

This discussion started when I was talking with some friends about the synchronization between all their devices and how they liked having everything on their phones. I just didn’t get why that would be important at all. Why would I even want my PDFs on a device where I’ll never read them?

Perhaps it’s just a shift in paradigm and the type of devices that come into your life at a young age. For the record, I’m currently 23 years old (born in 2000)—technically Gen Z, not even that old—but I couldn’t feel older than when I hear people around me saying skibidi toilet unironically. Even for people my age, smartphones arrived in my life quite late, while computers came very early.

Although the first iPhone came out in 2007, in my country smartphones really started gaining popularity around 2012 or 2013. I remember people playing Fruit Ninja, Subway Surfers, and messing around with that beer app. My phone at that time was… well, none. I didn’t have one because I didn’t need one. I was in elementary school, my parents picked me up, and whenever I was out, I wasn’t alone—I was with one of my older sisters, who had one of those indestructible Nokia bricks for emergencies.)

Let me start a side story inside a parenthesis

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I started using computers when I was really young. I don’t remember the exact age, but I’m pretty sure I was playing children’s games on floppy disks with my mom when I was in kindergarten or early elementary school.

I discovered the internet when I was around 6, during a visit to my cousin’s house where I saw him playing Neopets. My earliest memory of using the internet at home was watching the Cat Soup video from Smosh about 16 years ago. When I was 8, my older sibling would occasionally lend me her Sony Vaio laptop to watch The Legend of Zelda theories on YouTube and play Club Penguin. Those were some amazing times..

I kept using computers and eventually got my first laptop at 12. At the time, my school was innovating by allowing students to bring laptops to class every Friday to learn how to take digital notes using MS Word 2007. My dad lent me his Windows 7 laptop for those days, and when he bought a new one for work, he let me keep it.

End of parenthesis.

)

My first smartphone came in 2017 when I was in high school and started commuting on my own. I used it for exactly that: calling people and listening to some music. It always felt like a more cumbersome version of a regular computer—something to use when my computer wasn’t around. And I got used to seeing it that way.

Contrary to my experience, it seems like these youngsters nowadays (joke intended) feel exactly the opposite. They’re so used to smartphones that a PC seems like the more cumbersome way to do things. How could that even be possible?!

My hypothesis is that this phenomenon is simply a matter of which type of device arrives first in your life. For me, the desktop computer became the cornerstone of my digital experience. It’s where I learned to browse the internet, type documents, and even entertain myself. The larger screen, the physical keyboard, and the multitasking capabilities became second nature. In contrast, my first smartphone was always a secondary tool—a backup for when my primary device wasn’t available.

On the other hand, especially young people (I am also young I know), the smartphone is their first gateway to the digital world. The idea of swiping, and tapping through a touchscreen is as natural to them as typing is for me. To them, PCs may seem bulky, outdated, or unnecessary for most tasks. The convenience of having everything in one device, always at their fingertips, reshapes their sense of productivity. Why boot up a computer when you can accomplish the same tasks with a few taps on your phone?

So, which is better? Well… none. For me, the computer became an extension of my thinking, something I could rely on for complex tasks, learning, and creativity. But for many who grew up with smartphones, that same sense of comfort and efficiency is transferred to their mobile devices. It’s not that one way is better or worse, but rather that our early experiences with technology guide how we interact with it.

A pretty boring conclusion to a long post :D