***Don’t hate me because I am going against the all holy iPhone. Pity me because I see the phone differently than the majority. This goes for most smartphones but the iPhone is the best example.
A TASTE OF THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE IPHONE:
With the IPhone you are instantly connected to everything that is happening around you and the events happening in the world. News, breaking news, celebrity drama and 1000’s of applications all at your fingertips. Throw in the fact that you are instantly connected to your friends and family and the rest of the world VIA Facebook.
You get real time updates on everyone’s lives and the things that happen in them. Instantly you are connected to the world. I know it is minuscule to most people; but I just find it interesting that we used to know nothing about the things that have happened in the world or in other people’s lives until we actually spoke to them, read the newspaper, or heard/watched the News.
Now you hear about baby births, engagements, job promotions, and anything else in a person’s personal life instantly and without even speaking to them. This has very bluntly and rapidly removed a large part of our social interaction. Agreed?
You are instantly connected to these world events and the people closest in your life and can research anything you can think of at any given second. This amount of information and technology has never been as readily available as it is at this point in society. What wouldn’t make people addicted to this piece of technology? To me it sounds like an inevitable combination for addiction. Instant satisfaction mixed with complete power and control. The power and ability to research anything you want; connect to anything you want, the control to do it whenever you want.
Have you ever walked passed someone talking on their iPhone with the “hands free” system. Headphones in and they are talking to nothing. I remember when talking to yourself in public was a sign of craziness. “Stay clear of those people!” I always thought. Perhaps I still should.
Two normal people out for dinner together sitting at a table; they are both on their iPhone, or one of them is. What on earth would they do if they didn’t have their iPhones? Fully interact? Blasphemy.
Try having a conversation with someone who has an iPhone. You understand that if they get a text they will instantly check it; you know they are going to be constantly looking at it, and at some point you know they are going to be on it instead of interacting with you. They are transfixed into this piece of technology. It is a certain type of personality. This personality trait is the fact that they would rather play, check, or use their phone instead of fully interacting with you. A victim of modern society if you will.
It has surgically removed a large amount of social interaction and we have turned a blind eye to this fact. Everyone already feels a disconnect from the world, and the iPhone I feel has not helped. But isn’t technology supposed to bring people closer together?
We’ve gone from walking down the street to speak to our neighbours, to calling them on the phone, to emailing them, to texting them, to Facebook messaging them; to finally being together with the person...only to have them on their iPhone instead of interacting with you.
Further and further away.
Angry Birds anyone?
THE CONSPIRACY SIDE OF THE IPHONE:
I find it scary, that in a world of Government agencies collecting information about us constantly; we feel comfortable with a piece of technology that not only holds all our emails, texts, banking information, personal information and Social Media information; it has GPS and a screen that can scan your fingerprint.
What’s the best way to not only know everything about someone but know where they are? Get an iPhone.
