iPads Are The New Spaceships

The ease and speed with which young kids grasp the incredibly complicated functions of smartphones and tablets is astounding, and it only makes sense that their tech fantasies — for years drawn by cars, spaceships, and the military-industrial complex — are now directed toward the gadgets their parents own. I loved trucks and planes. London loves MacBooks and iPads.

But before you lament the passing of The Cooler Times, or whatever, imagine what a smartphone look like to a child, and what the possibility, or inevitability, of one day having your own must mean. Getting a smartphone might feel an awful lot like joining the world, even more so than getting behind the wheel of a car. It's a uniquely potent sign of personhood.