iPhones: Progress or Shiny Aesthetics?

Every time I move up the seemingly never-ending ladder of mobile phone technology, my reaction has been uniform: playing and fidgeting with the new gadget until it no longer becomes a toy or novelty and is just “my phone,” as opposed to “my new phone.” This syndrome, one could infer, is standard for most teens living in this age of innovation.

Living through a time of such rapid technological advancement with my LG Cosmos, I developed generalizations about this new smart phone culture, about the devices themselves and their users: useful and yet obnoxiously exploitative conformists. However, putting all my negative criticism aside, I decided I’d go ahead and hop on the bandwidth wagon and get an iPhone. Although I held very negative views of the way some people used the technology, I had this idea in my head that I’d be different and would simply use the device more intelligently than others. But to be honest, I also couldn’t wait to play Temple Run.

Having now had the phone for almost a week, I don’t see what all the hype is about. No single piece of technology can be the best because we all know in the back of our minds that we will soon move on. And that conclusion leads me to a debatable point: the idea that smaller portable “technology” is better and thus signifies progression.

Mastering the computer chip and shrinking it down from the size of a movie theatre screen to a fingernail may be important, but only in the sense that we can utilize it for something worthwhile. Over the past few decades, instead of learning how to fly, we created the Internet, and then twenty years later, we made the Internet on-the-go. We like to believe that those scientists and engineers are flawless and would never produce a product that could harm us. And yet, look at all the issues that making Internet available to go has caused: distracted driving accidents, a loss of youthful attention in places necessary such as the classroom, and a lack of social intimacy.

The impact that new technology has on our social life most often goes unnoticed and when people finally look in the mirror, it’s usually too late. We may forget how to have a conversation with another person without having an unlimited amount of time to respond, but it’s okay, as long as it looks cool while we’re doing it.

Having these new devices also raises the bar by which we judge technology, whether or not the achievement is legitimate and practical or solely aesthetic. The fact of the matter is that we are no longer phased by this new material, which may in turn breed a very intolerant generation.

So while I may sound like a hypocrite for owning an iPhone, I consider myself and a select group of others to be exceptions. It can be very easy to fall into this smart phone fugue, and in order to compensate for this regression in social structure, one must openly recognize the potential defects of the new craze. Recognizing them allows one to rise above popular culture and act in an ideal and ethical manner. Yet again, we see the failure to realize our cultural faults because the majority, who happens to be consumed in a materialistic cocoon, is committing them.

Jake Ulick is a junior at .