Is your new phone really your friend? | Oliver Burkeman

Our hardwired tendency toward laziness means once we've been persuaded to adopt certain pseudo-conveniences, we won't want to give them up

The new iPhone 8, as you probably couldn't help learning a few weeks back, boasts "wireless charging that's truly effortless", meaning that instead of having to plug it into the wall, you simply place it on a special pad. Which you then plug into the wall. If you're struggling to imagine the kind of person who finds the act of plugging a cable into their phone unacceptably inconvenient - especially since you'll still have to leave your phone in one place while it charges - well, that makes two of us.

But I'm sure wireless charging will catch on anyway, because Apple understands something profound about the psychology of convenience: half the time, it isn't really about eliminating annoying or effortful chores. It's about introducing features you "didn't know you needed" - a fancy way of saying you didn't need them - safe in the knowledge that once lots of other people have them, you'll want them; and once you've got them, you won't want to lose them. "I guess it's one of those things you don't really care about until you use it," wrote one owner of another device with wireless charging, trying to explain the appeal. Which is also true of heroin, but never mind that for now.