Smart tool, no addiction

Regarding “The talking dead: how personality drives smartphone addiction” (Chron.com, Monday), I am glued to my phone. But it has replaced many of the things I would spend time on otherwise.

I read the news. Use it as a GPS. I use it as my camera and video camera. I use it as a watch, stopwatch and timer. It is my planner, calendar and address book. I research and book our vacations. Lately it’s also been how I make shopping lists, clip coupons, shop and pay. It’s how I show my grandmother photos of the grandkids.

I work from home, so I use it to answer emails and actually do work (I’m an event/facility coordinator) so it has almost replaced my laptop completely.

My son’s school uses an online system for assignments, grades, scheduling and lunches, and I use an app on my phone to coordinate my daughter’s room parents and share class pictures. I even read books on it at times!

Add up all the time I’d spend on those individual activities, and I don’t know that you’d find a lot of us are truly “addicted.”

I don’t feel I’m particularly impulsive or emotionally unstable, and I don’t selfie or Snapchat or Instagram or play games. My two young children make carrying around a laptop or using a desktop nearly impossible, so a smartphone is pretty much the only tool I can use reliably.

Frankly I’m just tired of hearing how bad smartphones are when we all know how functional they are in daily life and how many individual tools they’ve replaced. Kelly Force, posted via Facebook