’Tis the season for gift-giving and gift “promoting.” The market is inundated with cell phone and service provider advertising. Why? Probably because everyone needs a cell phone to survive.

We communicate with it (of course), we use it for quick calculations and snapshots, we stay informed using it, and we can even use it to pay for our Pancheros burritos if we want.

Basically, it’s an all-in-one, magical device. A truly, smart phone.

Back to the Stone Age

Our office was discussing the latest and greatest features of our new phones and this got me thinking about my first cell phone.

It was an LG flip phone with a green screen and black text. The basics. This spawned a fun conversation with co-workers who range in ages. How old were we when we first got a cell phone? What was our first cell phone? (Do you remember the days of limited or no texting?!)

Some of us had to share our phone with our siblings. Can you imagine? Others hardly used it other than to call our parents, because none of our friends had phones yet.

I got my first cell phone about 10 years ago, but my favorite story was from John. He had a Nokia in 2001 or 2002 that you couldn’t even play snake on. In his words it “looked like an alarm clock” and it didn’t even store contacts. How is that even practical?

Like I said before: Now we use our cell phones for everything. You’re probably reading this on your cell phone. And ironically — if you’re like me and the other millennials — you probably aren’t even using your phone to verbally speak to someone most of the time.

You’re using it for digital communication and consumption. That means we need content that’s easily digestible on a four-inch screen (give or take depending on your phone).

Whether it’s Facebook ads, emails, or blog posts — we need something that will easily keep us swiping.

It’s in the Numbers

According to HubSpot in 2016, one-third of people use their smartphone as their primary device to access the internet.

Half of the emails opened in 2015 were opened on a smartphone. That was 2015. I think it’s safe to assume it’s only gone up from there (even when you know what you get for assuming).

The all powerful Google also said that more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the U.S. (Keep an eye out for what’s to come of Google searching in an upcoming 9 Clouds blog).

Heck, these days we’re even calling out to our phones for help while we drive.

Whether you’re giving the mobile gift that keeps on giving this year, or treating yo’ self to the iPhone X, stop and think how your device will affect your digital consumption. If we’re already at an all-screen-no-buttons, facial-recognition phase now, where will we be in 10 more years?

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