I-Phone: All That is America

I-Phone: All That is America

We once had records. Large, cumbersome vinyl disks which would provide us with music. These devices were sedentary and required a listener to remain rooted to the spot and engage the music in an entirely different manner than we do now. Since that time as America and the world has changed so has our music listening devices. We incorporate other forms of media and information into one compact device. With our modifications and “improvements” to age-old practices such as listening to music, watching films, keeping up with news, and surfing the internet we have forever changed the meaning of such activities.

The pinnacle of our relentless goal of streamlining, retrofitting, and reducing is Apple’s cherished I-Phone which allows you to perform thousands of different tasks and activities from the palm of your hand. The very design and operation of this device speaks to the core of the human population which has always sought the means to create the most leisure and the least amount of work. The sleek design and touch action feature allows the operator to exert no effort aside from simply moving their finger across the screen. The operator needs not to bother with exerting force to push down a button. It is truly a work of art that our culture was finally able to dream up a media device which would remove the remote control aspect of the process. This is a great leap forward for us as a society that we will not be bothered by such a tiresome, fatigue inducing device.

With nearly all art forms being transferred and compacted into a single solitary device human beings will never again have to be truly present in their own reality. Now on the train, in the bathtub, at the dinner table, and at work people can be lost in their own personal cybernetic worlds of email, John Mayer singles, and Season 3 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. This allows for these previously community based activities to become solitary events, and continues our slow self-imposed process of humanity breaking apart and withdrawing from basic social and emotional relationships.

When we want information, entertainment, or simply a distraction we want it now! Human beings and especially Americans do not feel that waiting for anything is the appropriate course of action. It deflates our ego and makes us feel that we are not the pristine creatures created in God’s image and deserving of instant everything. We must sometimes go without and even have to rely on something that can’t be leafed through and accessed in a delightful pocket-sized device. We must rely on our fellow human beings and even more scary sometimes our own minds and bodies. It is a terrifying thought and one that is becoming more and more unnatural to have as the I-Phone and Blackberry craze consumes us all.