Steve Jobs Put the Internet in Your Pocket and Ruined Your Posture

On June 29, 2007, Apple released the iPhone, and Steve Jobs did the thing he was best at: presenting a product that made everything that came before it look like a toy, while simultaneously making this toy look like the future. "An iPod, a phone, and an internet communications device," he said, three times, grinning, because the audience hadn't realized it was one thing. The internet communications device part was the one that mattered. Not because anyone understood that at the time — people lined up for days to buy what they thought was a fancy iPod that could make calls — but because putting a real web browser in everyone's pocket fundamentally altered the relationship between humans and information. Before the iPhone, you went to the internet. After the iPhone, the internet came with you, everywhere, always, whether you wanted it to or not. The App Store came a year later and created an economy. Instagram came three years later and created an aesthetic. Within a decade, the average person checked their phone 96 times a day, and "screen time" became a public health metric. Jobs introduced the device by saying it was "five years ahead of any other phone." He undersold it. It was five years ahead of human psychology's ability to handle it.