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“First rule of magic: always be the smartest person in the room.” – J. Daniel Atlas, “Now You See Me,” Summit Entertainment, 2013

I saw the weirdest thing the other day … a woman was talking on her iPhone–seriously!! Have you ever seen someone with the battery level of their smartphone below 20 percent? Scary!! People do everything on their phones today … except talk. Jack Wilder noted, “Dude, I’ve seen everything that you have ever done.” Heck, Arianna Huffington told Jon Stewart on the Daily Show earlier this year that it’s so bad that 20 percent of the folks use their phone during sex (check the online Daily Show archives).

Me? I can’t even drive and get Siri to call my wife without the voice getting jealous. Snarky text messages are probably why Apple and Google decided to encrypt all mobile messages and California insisted on a kill switch if the phone is lost or stolen. That ticks off the FBI and really irritates the person who swiped the phone and found out all he/she got was a flexible brick. Like a lot of folks, the voice part of our family mobile plan is practically flatlined. There’s no need because the kids live online Instagram, Pinterest, Tumbler, Twitter, Facebook. It’s also where they watch most of their video entertainment, listen to the music, play games, email each other and us … even when we’re in the next room. It’s true, they have notebooks in their room and iPads but still, the smartphone is the one thing that never leaves their side/pocket/hand.

Everything But Talk – Today’s smartphone is the one device you have with you no matter what is happening/going on. It’s only natural that it’s the first thing you grab to drop a note to someone, post something, check stuff out, grab a photo. And yes, I’ve left the office, turned around and gone back for my connection to the world … just in case. Fortunately, I’m past the age of having rugrats so I don’t have to make that gut-wrenching decision … how soon should he/she get a smartphone? There are millions of studies on how many GenX-Z, millennials, boomers and beyond have smartphones but it’s hard to really pin down the number of new smartphones that go to connected kids. My bet is a helluva’ lot!

Young, Connected – Want to know how to use a new app or a new feature on your smartphone? Just give it to a little kid and in no time at all, it’s done. But what they do with their smartphone needs to be closely monitored for their own good. And probably more than we realize. That’s okay, because there’s a feeling of security/safety for both parents and kids in knowing they can instantly contact each other. Since the youngest of us were born connected, they went online BAM!! even though most of the social media have these published rules as to how old you have to be before you participate. Yeah, a real barrier to posting, playing.

The problem is little ones start out being trusting and open. It takes age and experience for individuals to realize that bad stuff can happen. Even adults don’t realize it because if they did, phishing expeditions wouldn’t reel in so many dumb/gullible people. That’s why Dylan Reeves said, “And the instant that you even show the slightest crack in that smug facade, I’ll be there. I’ll be all over you like…” While the numbers are old in Internet time, the U.S. Commerce Department finally published data from 2012 showing that more than half of the folks over 25 used their phones for nonvoice stuff, including photos and videos. The rest were probably posting stuff that is of real interest to marketers and bad people.

What Privacy? – People around the globe are concerned about their online privacy and they’ll do anything to get it except take down all their important, personal, private information. Hey, if you ain’t on social media you really don’t exist, do you? But the increasing need to over share has a downside:
– 18- to 24-year-olds on Facebook have 510 friends on average (seriously?)
– 87 percent of bullied teens were targeted on Facebook and that has quickly spread to their newer “in” site
– 59 percent of parents have talked to their children because they were concerned about something posted to social media
– 43 percent of parents check their kids’ profiles daily
– Facebook collects over 500 Terabytes of data every day and other social media sites are learning there’s valuable data there as well
– One out of every seven minutes spent online is on Facebook and the rest is spent???
– 35 percent of employers have found information on social media that’s caused them to not hire someone (but man, it was fun)
– 85 percent of women are annoyed by friends on Facebook
– Links about sex are shared 90 percent more than any other link on Facebook (folks, get a room)
– Facebook has been linked to 66 percent of divorces in the U.S., with 81 percent of the nation’s divorce lawyers saying clients have cited using social networks as damning evidence against their spouses in the past five years (see room note)
– One-third of Facebook’s 18-34 aged female demographic check Facebook when they first wake up, even before going to the bathroom
About 54 percent of the population is online and 66 percent of them are rightfully worried about little things like privacy.
As Jack Wilder pointed out, “Nothing, nothing’s ever locked.”

Too Much to Do – Wonder why you’re tired after a full day at school or work? It’s because you’ve been working real hard. It takes a lot of time, effort, thinking to keep the world posted on how awesome you really are, how much you do, your thoughts. Sure, they know Instagram photo-sharing isn’t secure or Snapchat or LinkedIn or cripes, any of them! But does that slow them down? NNNOOOO! The problem is there’s no agreement on what private information really is, according to Adam Joinson, professor of behavior change at the University of the West of England. He coined “digital crowding” to describe social media’s excessive contact and loss of personal space. You know, when you put all your personal info, life out there for the world to see. Especially all those selfies.

Monkey Business – Face it, most selfies are just monkeying around stuff that can disappear without having much impact on the world around us. But even monkeys think their selfies are special, even though this one wasn’t allowed to copyright his. It’s pretty tough to have a really personal life with real people when 80 percent of the tech-connected folks out there log on to all of their sites at least once a week and three-quarters of the Twitter and Facebook users log on every day. It’s pretty hard to have any real privacy when 70 percent of Instagram and 67 percent of Snapchat users log on daily. Maybe it’s time to blow off some of your tech socializing and try something really weird … face-to-face discussions, meetings. As J. Daniel Atlas said, “The closer you think you are, the less you’ll actually see.”