Really
My small stash of Apple stock has appreciated about 5000% in the 8 years or so since I bought it after seeing my friend’s kid play with his first generation iPod, but I think I’m going to divest myself of it any day now.
Not on financial grounds; I see no reason to not expect it won’t continue to keep going through yet another roof.
Not even on moral grounds; no doubt you’ve seen reports of Apple’s recent and ongoing human rights abuses in their manufacturing process.
No, I’m going to give the company up on aesthetic grounds: it’s impossible to deny anymore that the iPhone has made the world an uglier, stupider, and way less respectful place.
I see it everywhere I go: on the bus, in the classroom, at the bar, and even today, in this Yoga Conference I’m attending: people all around you, tip-tap-tapping on their little plastic security blankets to the exclusion and derision of everyone around them, their attention shrunk down to a tiny little screen that matters more to them than the flesh and blood world of sentient creatures and organic life that abounds beyond the tip of their noses.
The straw for me was this afternoon, in a class on pranayama, the breathing technique intended to help still the fluctuations of the mind, where whole bunches of skinny bitches in yoga pants held their phones at the ready and at least a couple of them kept regularly and obsessively reading and sending messages all through the instruction—or at least the first hour or so of it until I could stand it no longer and had to move out of range so as not to strangle each with their organic cotton shawls.
It’s a sad addiction, and one that’s making us even more pathetic creatures than we already are.
So, as much as I’ve enjoyed the ride the iPhone has given my little portfolio, I think it’s time to get off.
Not on financial grounds; I see no reason to not expect it won’t continue to keep going through yet another roof.
Not even on moral grounds; no doubt you’ve seen reports of Apple’s recent and ongoing human rights abuses in their manufacturing process.
No, I’m going to give the company up on aesthetic grounds: it’s impossible to deny anymore that the iPhone has made the world an uglier, stupider, and way less respectful place.
I see it everywhere I go: on the bus, in the classroom, at the bar, and even today, in this Yoga Conference I’m attending: people all around you, tip-tap-tapping on their little plastic security blankets to the exclusion and derision of everyone around them, their attention shrunk down to a tiny little screen that matters more to them than the flesh and blood world of sentient creatures and organic life that abounds beyond the tip of their noses.
The straw for me was this afternoon, in a class on pranayama, the breathing technique intended to help still the fluctuations of the mind, where whole bunches of skinny bitches in yoga pants held their phones at the ready and at least a couple of them kept regularly and obsessively reading and sending messages all through the instruction—or at least the first hour or so of it until I could stand it no longer and had to move out of range so as not to strangle each with their organic cotton shawls.
It’s a sad addiction, and one that’s making us even more pathetic creatures than we already are.
So, as much as I’ve enjoyed the ride the iPhone has given my little portfolio, I think it’s time to get off.
posted by Professor Dave at 5:47 PM
3 Comments:
Right on, Dave! I get tired of people immersing themselves in manufactured delusion every minute of every hour that they're not asleep. No one sees anything or anyone around them; it's a regressive and recursive personality sump, because phone texts connect you only to people you already know, and the "3G online experience" is the emotional-aesthetic equivalent of Interstate rest stop "food."
So much for "being here now." Instead we feel compelled to mainline prepackaged infotainment out of fear that we won't know what to feel if some fascist blowhard doesn't tell us.
One persons documentation of this phenomena.
http://zackarias.com/editorial-photography/de_vice-series-picked-up-by-cnn/
http://zackarias.com/misc-photos/de_vice-streets-of-nyc-with-the-fuji-x100/
I see it in my own hands/house/life. I have a much easier time resisting things initially than giving them up. I caved 3.5 years ago to the smart-phone and can renew my vows later this year. The problem is it can be a tool or pacifier. Unfortunately it requires my will to determine what role it takes.
Remember the days when you could go to the grocery store or even an airport and everyone had their head up looking around or talking to others? I agree with Andre that it's both a tool and pacifier and it's too bad more people don't treat it like a tool to be used sparingly.
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