Ivan Illich on how technologies create radical monopolies

smartphone ownership is often a deciding factor for access to many cultural experiences, or at the very least, a differentiator in the level of service one now receives in a multitude of commercial interactions.

As someone with older parents who are increasingly ostracized from society because of their inability (and also unwillingness) to operate a smartphone, this is spot on.

As smartphone-oriented infrastructure continues to seep into everyday life, it begets ever-greater dependence on smartphone technology, and thus ever-greater dependence on the producers of this technology. Those who cannot afford smartphones, or those who simply choose to live without smartphones, find themselves increasingly excluded from full participation in society, often with no viable alternative. Like with the automobile, we may soon become locked into this way of being. Perhaps we already are.