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I bought a new phone this week. This in itself is unremarkable; almost everyone has a smartphone, and trading your old one in for the newest model is mundane to the extreme, although trying to make sense of the trade-in deals and the benefits and drawbacks of the various carriers resembles trying to pick a Medicare option.
Ask around and you’ll get the same “they all suck” reactions whether it’s about cell service (my house appears to be a dead spot for all three national carriers) or Medicare Advantage (your doctors are not in network no matter who you choose, and Medicare-plus-Medigap-plus-prescription plan costs more than you can afford). I’m just glad to get the phone thing done. Medicare, assuming it still exists by then, is next year’s agonizing decision.
There have been pretenders to the throne – at one point, “smart speakers” were going to be ubiquitous and dominant, but do you really use those things much anymore? The smartphone though remains the device that most people use to replace radio, television, and print. Judging by how hot phones get when you charge them with MagSafe, they could probably replace your toaster oven. It’s easy to forget that they’re phones and you can actually dial a number and talk to someone, or leave a voicemail they’ll never open. They’re amazing devices as well as annoying as hell.
By now, most people working in media are aware that the cell phone is the conduit by which what they create – news, entertainment, video, whatever – gets to the consumer. Some have adapted better than others; for every news organization that has encountered difficulty maintaining an audience (and revenue) online, or radio company that hasn’t quite figured out how to promote and sell streaming audio or create podcasts people will want to hear, there are media companies that have made it work, or at least have survived so far. Someone’s making money doing this.
One question I have, though, is how long this will be the case? I have one of those deals where I can upgrade my phone every year, and as I bought an iPhone 16 Pro I wondered whether I’ll someday be buying an iPhone 28 or whether there will be some other device through which I’ll get my information and entertainment.
If there is, and it’s inevitable that it’s coming, it’s likely to be something we aren’t even thinking about. If it’s up to someone like Elon Musk, it’ll be a chip in your brain. Companies are still trying to make “smart glasses” and AR and VR headsets a thing, despite strong evidence that most people do not want them.
What’s next might show up relatively soon, or may not come for decades, but it’s coming. It’s an open question whether the people in charge of the media at the time will effectively adapt to that new technology or as they did at every turn since the internet changed everything, flounder and try to shoehorn whatever they’re already doing into technology and a market that want something different.
I’d bet on the latter. How many traditional news outlets are effectively using TikTok, for example? How well did traditional media fare when Facebook and Google took their content and advertising revenue? Where are the true innovators, and are they ready for whatever technology comes next? And will they listen to the consumer and give the people what they want, rather than forcing their existing content into new packaging?
I don’t know if I’ll still be around by then, but I’m not likely to be one of those decision makers anyway. My goal is to spend less time staring at the phone screen, less time doomscrolling, less time with social media, even with a shiny new phone. We can all stand spending more time touching grass.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
