Breeze Perspectives:
Vice of the Century: Apple iPhones

The tech gurus have done it again, but will this gadget be the end of attention spans and casual conversation?

By Caroline Carter, contributing writer
Posted on September 4, 2007

It reminds you about all of the important events in your life including your Grandma’s birthday and your next dentist appointment. It also makes sure that you know when to bust out the umbrella or when sporting a sweater is more appropriate. It even stores and displays embarrassing pictures of you that you wish had never been taken.

No, I’m not talking about your mother; I’m talking about your cell phone; that is, if you are one of the people who have purchased Apple’s new iPhone.

While your mom may have a lot in common with the iPhone, this gadget bears little resemblance to the phones of our parents’ generation. For starters, the iPhone does much more than make calls. This device is also, as Apple describes it in a promotional video “the best iPod [it has] ever created.”

With this little baby at your side, you will never be without your favorite music, movies, TV shows, pictures and podcasts. If that wasn’t enough, the iPhone also connects its users to the Internet, giving them access to e-mail, weather updates, stock reports, traffic information, Google maps and, most important, YouTube.

With all these features there is no question that the iPhone is much more advanced than that rotary dial hidden somewhere in the attic, though, let’s face the facts, despite the cobwebs, your mom’s retro phone is definitely groovier.

Though the iPhone puts more technology within reach of your pinky finger than our parents would have ever dreamed to be possible, I doubt that this advance in technology will actually advance the quality of our lives. Granted, the iPhone will add an element of convenience to our day. Even I have to admit that the idea of having access to all of the entertainment and information you could ever need right there in your pocket is rather thrilling.

Though the tech geek in me is inclined to buy one of these gadgets for myself, deep down I realize that all the added convenience comes at a cost.

In the past, the introduction of new technological innovations has led to widespread dependence on gadgets and gizmos that our society was once perfectly content without. If you doubt me on this point, I recommend that you try taking your next math exam without using a calculator. If you are anything like me than you won’t be pleased with the results.

Even if you were ‘that kid’ in elementary school, you know, the one who was the first to learn your times tables and obliterated the competition in every game of around the world, chances are that there is some other piece of technology that you rely on too much.

I have noticed that many of us here at JMU are dependent on our Pods. As we walk through campus, with our iPods in hand, we ignore the beauty of the mountainous terrain (it really is beautiful even though many of us curse it daily on our way to ISAT) and what’s worse is that we ignore each other.

While the iPod addicts are already prevalent here at JMU, cell phone junkies are becoming increasingly common. I myself have been known to send a text or two as I walk around campus, much to the chagrin of those trying to walk at a normal pace behind me. I felt the full weight of my own cell phone dependence last week when I found myself sitting on top of a mountain in Shenandoah National Park, one of the most beautiful places in the country, determined to figure out how to delete photos from my camera phone.

iPods and cell phones are great. The Internet is even better. A phone that combines all three of these technologies sounds like a dream come true; but the problem has little to do with the technology itself and lots to do with how we use it. When these devices are used excessively they distract us from what is really important: the familiar face of a friend, the smile of a stranger or just the beauty of the world around us.

While the iPhone has many motherly qualities such as its unrivaled memory for names, addresses and phone numbers, or its comforting presence in the midst of a crisis, it is no substitute for your real mother.

So while the iPhone may appear to, as the cliché goes, “put the world at your fingertips,” I think it is time that we stop and remember that some of the best parts of our world cannot be found on a tiny little screen.

Caroline Carter is a junior SMAD and psychology major.