iM sick of it
I am not a technophobe, nor am I a luddite, but I am upset about the iPhone. I felt this way when the iPod video came out (who needs video on the iPod? Isnt the iPod good enough as it is? I understand color and album art, but TV shows?) I swore I would never buy one, but then I did when my second generation iPod crapped out on me for the third time (I replaced the battery twice).
I like new gadgets. I think they are fun and useful and interesting and cool. I was the second person I know to get an iPod, actually (Andrew Stillman was first). I love cell phones--I think they are the most useful invention of my lifetime (aside from Dance Dance Revolution, of course).
So why am I so pissed about the iPhone? I myself use a Blackberry and an iPod, and I like them very much, so why wouldnt I want to have the units combined in a sleek, sharp Apple package?
Well, that's just it. I do. And I hate myself for wanting it. I'm perfectly fine without it, but I still want it. I could easily convince myself that I need it. And that's bullshit. It's like Malibu Stacy. Lisa makes that new Lisa Lionheart doll, and everybody thinks its great, until Malibu Stacy comes out with a new hat. She's got a new hat! I need the Malibu Stacy with the new hat! Yeah, right. I need her new hat like I need flipflops with a built in bottle opener. My emotions and needs are at the strategically designed whims of Apple's technological innovations.
And as much as I enjoy new technology, I am somewhat pessimistic about its cultural implications. We are retreating further inward. We stare at what's in our hands more than the person next to us, but we consider it interaction because it's a new form of communication. I wonder what it used to be like on the subway--before most everyone was plugged in to their iPod, or responding to email, or playing PSP. I wonder what we are losing. I think ones sense of immediacy is totally out of wack. What is immediate is the world around you, but when the world is in your hand, everything else becomes secondary. My cousin asks me to look at a picture she just drew and I tell her, hold on, I have to respond to a text message. I mean, why talk to the person next to me when I can google chat with Ben? Why look at the world around me when I can watch Grey's Anatomy on my iPhone? Why listen to the sounds of the city when I can..... You get the point.
The iPhone is hardly to blame. Obviously I can do all these things without one. Maybe I'm so upset because the iPhone sets the bar higher. It's an example of the kind of technology that we don't have yet, but will have soon. It's a technological turning point.
I can't say I will never buy an iPhone, because I probably will. But in the mean time, I think it's bullshit.
posted by S Goldsmith at 6/28/2007 01:08:00 PM
5 Comments:
Why do I know someone that actually HAS flipflops with a bottle opener on them?...
I am curious why you consider the iPhone a technological turning point -- if anything, it is just another example of Apple perfecting an already pre-existing technology's form factor.
If anything, Apple has proven its effecetive ability to advertise -- the fact that you felt the need to state a position about a product, whether positive or negative, says much more about Apple's cultural position than its technological revelations.
Also I don't buy your technological pessimism. I can tell you exactly what I did on public transportation before these new gadgets: I ignored everybody else, usually by reading a book.
Our interactions may rapidly become more "mediated" but they are still interactions.
Call it what you will -- technological advance, successful advertising or good design -- it's still a turning point. There were tons of MP3 players before the iPod, but not until then did they become so common. Likewise, there are Blackberrys and Trios, etc, but they are used mostly by business men. I would say the iPhone, more than any other device (Blackberry pearl, Sidekick, etc), will make internet/email cell phones more of the norm.
Wanna make a bet? The iPod came out in the final fiscal quarter of 2001. Fast forward five years. More than 20 million iPods were sold in the final quarter of 2006. I will bet you that five years from now, most people have email, chat and internet on their cell phones. And I bet it's the actual web pages, not the half-ass ones like on my Blackberry.
And you don't buy my technological pessimism? What you did on the UTA bus is not a fair reflection of the rest of the world. But you're right. It's not like before iPods everybody got chummy with their seatmate and talked about the world. But go read a book about civic engagement, or talk to one of your parent's colleagues at the U. There is no question that as we get closer to technology we get more isolated from the people around us, and that leads to all kinds of problems. I can recommend some books and/or professors if you like.
Civic engagement is not static a concept. Neither is technology.
Check out Seattle's Online Civic Engagement Initiative.
Remember Meetup.com?
This is only the tip of the iceberg?
But maybe I am too much of a believer in the power of the internet to radically transform what it means to be and participate in a democracy.
So if you do have some literature that can lay down the law on my optimism, please do.
Talking to people is over-rated.
Why would I want to talk to people in person when I can do it over the phone. Or listen to music. Or play DS. Or read. Etc. Etc.
And yes. I don't think the nature of the subway has changed. I just think that now you have a visible way of showing that you don't want to talk. I always use to pretend I was asleep. So I'd say an iPod is a step up.
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