It doesn’t matter where you go: to dinner, to the theater, to the bus stop, to the checkout line. It seems every hand holds a smartphone, and every eye is perpetually fixated upon them.

How deeply do smartphones influence and otherwise supplement our lives? Such is not a new question, but one I found myself asking with increasing frequency this summer during a near 40 day road trip from one end of the United States to the other. I spent 5500 miles with my smartphone, and for one drought-ridden summer in an old van it became my best friend, my personal navigator, my faithful mentor, my distraction, my solution, my lifeline – maybe even my crutch at times.