i really feel sorry for people who recently got the iphone 4. i sat at work, listening to my co-worker half-heartedly explain how his iphone sometimes gets really bad reception, but that it's ok. that he naturally holds his phone in exactly the way necessary to avoid the signal loss. how it's not alright that it has this problem, but it's also ok because it doesn't affect him for the most part.
i just had this twang of empathy. like, i see now... you really don't have a choice. what are you going to do, return the phone and get a non-iphone 4? it's not an option for him. in one sense because it's now ingrained into his life; the apps, the services, the way the phone feels, the way he uses it.... that's part of him now. he can't let it go. it's scary to think of not having an iphone. and that's the second sad thing. it's actually changed his manner of thinking and now he can't get away from the thing. it's like an addiction. he can't see himself without it, and now he's trapped by it.
this is a guy who less than a year ago had never owned an iphone. he's technically a "late adopter." yet in less than a year apple has not only converted him, they've made him their slave. in some ways i can relate... since getting a smart phone i feel like i need to have a more powerful one. i need to be able to stream video, or use irc or ssh remotely, or browse web pages fast and in full render. do i actually need these things? fuck no. i was perfectly fine with my old brick sony ericsson with the wonderful camera, sending pictures and using web pages just fine. now i sit in at&t stores trying to sell myself on buying the newest piece of shit android phone which still doesn't have as good a camera (and definitely no xenon flash) like my old phone.
so i get it now. i'll stop pointing fingers. i'll stop trying to convince you. because i know you can't escape it. you're trapped in a tar pit of technology and you can't get out even if you wanted to. i feel sorry that you're stuck with a (somewhat) shitty phone with a shitty app development model on a really shitty carrier. i wish we could all just have open-brand open-carrier open-market smartphones and share information and use the internet as freely on our mobile devices as we can on our computers.
but we can't. we probably won't ever, or not for a long time anyway. they figured out the way to trap us and steal more of our money than they ever did with the PC or laptop. it's overly-expensive unlocked phones and contracts and insurances and data plans and messaging plans. i pay $110 a month for a "standard" phone plan with "unlimited" data and "unlimited" messaging. that's $2,640 dollars every 2 years (without the extra amount i pay for a new phone every 1.5 years). i don't even buy a laptop or PC that often, or gaming machines or games. i just paid $520 for an almost-new laptop, the first big purchase in over 5 years.
this is kind of depressing me. i feel like i'm trapped too.
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