As it is, half of all Americans already own a smartphone (where, by the way, time spent on the internet just passed access via desktop). And in the long-term, the vision gets even more personal, bordering on wizardry: just think about Disney’s RFID-equipped Magic Band system, which not only allows users to unlock hotel rooms, pay for meals and souvenirs, and track where they’ve been … but also enables Disney characters to greet kids by name and much more.
This kind of personalization works in places like Disney World and, to a lesser degree, sports stadiums, because both are controlled, contained, seemingly safe environments. We enter them knowing we’ve sacrificed a certain amount of privacy in exchange for a unique experience. In a different context, these same experiences could become deeply creepy —