This Blasted Smartphone!

Tony Reinke does a great job capturing the deep ambivalence many of us feel about our smartphones in this short excerpt:

This blasted smartphone! Pesk of productivity. Tenfold plague of beeps and buzzing. Soulless gadget with unquenchable power hunger. Conjuror of digital tricks. Surveillance bracelet. Money pit. Inescapable tether to work. Dictator, distractor, foe! 

Yet it is also my untiring personal assistant, my irreplaceable travel companion, and my lightning-fast…