When did iPhones become compulsory?

On the train today I overheard an unsettling conversation...A professional looking woman of the Baby Boomer generation was enlightening her similar demographic friends about the wonders of the iphone. She spoke of how just now on the train she had checked facebook and left a message on her daughters page as if this action is such a common necessity of everyday life that the ability of the iphone to accomplish this makes it more than a mere accessory, rather an essential tool of 21st century life.

I'm aware that most people find iphones and their ilk extremely useful but I'm not sold and I only assumed that neither were my more stubborn elders. Don't get me wrong I have a mobile phone, portable music player, external hard-drive etc. and the idea to combine the three is very efficient, there's no doubting the cleverness of today's technology. What I take issue with is the need to have these devices with us at every waking moment. Here's a cartoon that expresses my distaste for all the 'gadgets' that come with it....

So lame!
I mean honestly if I'm going somewhere I check the map beforehand, if I get lost I can ring someone or ask for directions, not terribly inconvenient. I don't need to play 'air' hockey, pinball, darts or bomber challenge on the train, I'm quite happy reading my book thank you. I could go on but I don't want to disparage those that do enjoy everything these interactive phones have to offer. In closing I am not easily bought by cheap tricks. 

My parents like good Baby Boomers aren't very good with technology and my dad has recently taken to saying that he's read scientific reports hinting that mobile phones will be the cigarettes of our century. Maybe he's watched The X-Files too often and he sees conspiracy where there is none, but I don't really believe that. All those microwaves going through your brain have to have some kind of negative effect, the levels produced by mobile phones aren't natural in the least. Is there a giant cover-up going on? But as the cartoon below quite adeptly points out, who's going to stop using them? My old housemate couldn't survive 5 min without his, we used to have great fun hiding it until we saw how distressed he got after just 20 min. And I admit, not without some guilt mind, I wouldn't throw mine away in a hurry, although meaningless as it sounds I put people on speaker phone as often as possible thinking this makes a difference.

And final food for thought here is a picture from Swiss research which apparently shows how the radiation produced by mobiles affects the brain.