As essentially impossible as it is to be completely encouraged about the future of media or technology, there may be nothing that drives my optimism and ability to (hopefully) put things in their proper perspective than my grandfather Ben, who passed away the better part of 20 years ago.

His life spanned many, if not all of the huge cultural shifts of the 20th century, and he toed that fantastic old man line of being both in awe and skeptical of technology. What still stands out to me, though, is the degree to which he was blown away by how clear Arizona Wildcats basketball games were on my family’s relatively ordinary 32" CRT standard definition TV. This was the mid ‘90s, obviously well before consumer HD was even close to being a thing, and yet… BLOWN AWAY.

I’m not here to eulogize Grandpa Ben, though. I’m here because it’s impossible for me to look at what we now react to as normal or merely "cool," let alone things that are completely ridiculous (with two day shipping!), and not imagine him being completely transfixed, as if a UFO touched down in front of him and decided to broadcast indescribably clear college basketball holograms on his modest Tucson lawn.

So now, I think about how I’d begin to explain to him how I wander through life with a touchscreen wonder rectangle in my pocket. One that, in the past year, I’ve used to: