Australia’s first consumer smartphone was launched in March 2007 – the Nokia N95. The first iPhone landed in July 2008. That’s just shy of a decade and a half, or more succinctly: the average life expectancy of a Leopard Gecko, or a turkey – give or take Christmas – or a Bighorn Sheep. It’s also the lifespan of roughly two generations of guinea pigs. And around the average time in the sun for a corporate CEO, or federal MP.

Thing is, in 14–15 years most Australian children have gone from being taught how to use a knife and fork by grandma to teaching grandma how to find Wordle on her smartphone, to explaining coding to their parents, to going to uni. So why, in that same educationally vibrant period, have so many people failed so badly at smartphone 101, or just not bothered?

Audience in Concert Hall Shutterstock

Photo © Konstantin Shishkin/Shutterstock.com

These are the people who don’t understand or don’t accept what to do with their phones, having listened to the front-of-house manager ask the audience to, “Please turn off your mobile phones. And the use of recording equipment during the performance is strictly...