iStuff

Are you sick of the iMusthave culture?

iAm.

Interesting that all these fantabulous new i based products (mmmm....Apple....Drooooooollllll) are named 'i' something.

Let's look at this - why 'i'

I'm sure that you all know what it's supposed to stand for (actually do you? I'm not sure that I do) but what does it really mean? In these days of consumerism where everyone is encouraged overtly or by stealth to buy buy buy the latest phone/camera/music file player combo, I find it odd that the best selling item starts with an 'i'. Not a 'we' or an 'us'.

This has been on my mind for a while now - 'the man' that runs society, media, government, evil foreign power, intergalatic space aliens or whatever your interpretation, are perpetuating the myth that without the latest product you are really not fulfilling yourplace in life (or at least not filling their pockets) and therefore aren't a worthy person. Strange too that many of these products start with 'i' - you know the old adage - there's no 'i' in team.

There is of course an 'i' in 'family' but with a product that encourages you to indulge yourself with earphones and not share (unless on public transport - yeah - thanks) your brilliant taste in music with your nearest and dearest, automatically start to become isolated, whether you're a moody teenager, or Dad listening to his freeform jazz and thinking that he's really 'with it daddy-O'.

The upside should then be that for these gadgets on a hot summers day we shouldn't HAVE to share someone elses music - in practise however I think that this now means that the iDevice gets connected to their iSuperduper subwoofer enabled iSurround sound system which allows them to iSurround the neighbourhood with their awesome taste in music. Anyway - what was I saying.....oh yes, in these days of consumerism where we are not judged by who we are but by what 'stuff' we've got there certainly seems to be a shift toward individualism. Is this some kind of divide and conquer?

Facebook, mobile phone texting, twitter and all other variations of social networking, rather than promoting social gatherings (with a few notable exceptions, flashmobs, viral party invitations etc) seem to actually be preventing them. For example, we spend so much time telling friends and aquaintances how good a time we are having via our mobile device and what fun they are missing that we actually miss what's really hapenning. This is one of the reasons that many years ago I stopped using a video camera - I was spending so much time worrying about capturing the moment and getting the best shot that I was missing out on the real action and the ability to cram the real life goings on into my brain for recollection later. Whilst I've now got some great videos from that time in my life, I could have also had great memories with or without all the camera worries about sufficent spare tape, batteries and adequate lighting.

A modern example of this occurred to me recently when a friends daughter turned twenty one and her celebrations were held at a local coctail bar venue. Nice place. Nice fishtank. Nice cocktails. Music very loud. For this we were paying a premium price, as being one of 'the places' to be seen, the drinks were really expensive, with a fairly modest round reaching to three figure sums.

It was a struggle to hear what was going on and conversation was extremely limited, with everyone being forced to shout into their neighbours ear to be heard above the noise. This seemed to be encouraging everybody there to retreat back into their own skulls for entertainment as interactions with each other were limited. 

I started to notice a peculiar phenomenon. Each table had two bench seats capable of seating maybe five on either side of the table. Opposite me was a group of young twenty something girls all with long faces and mostly paying attention to whatever was going on in their laps. This was where they were managing to operate their mobile phones - and whether they were all texting each other or just twittering or facebooking away I don't know, but their faces certainly didn't tell a story of having a great time. I don't imagine that they were contacting various aquaintances to tell them how BAD a time they were having.

Social interaction of this type is OK in limited amounts - don't get me wrong - when I was a kid I used to spend hours on the CB radio, talking to friends and people I'd never met in the flesh, but still conversing and developing subtleties of tone and expression.

Face to face conversations are even better though and I worry that modern generations are being conditioned to be insular behaviour and will lose the ability to be able to hold a one on one conversation and pick up on nuances of body language that we have all taken for granted over the generations. How many of us can tell when someone is down or upset just by looking at a facial expression or how they hold their shoulders? Pretty hard to tell if the only interaction you get is via facebook ;-(   (Awww are you OK Hun? <Hugs>)

So there we go. Are we to expect an increasingly disfunctional society with all these communication developments we've been having over the last few decades? A higher suicide rate as social support crumbles and we all become totally isolated within our own heads? More mental health issues in society? Greater crime as the 'have nots' want what 'the haves' have got and decide that they're going to take it regardless of cost?

Look at the newspapers and decide for yourself. Is it just that now we are all wired for communication it's easier to report what's going on, or is it just that there is more crime these days? Perhaps we're all to blame as we are conditioned by the media and even our peers to want more, pay less and live the dream.

I'll sign off now with the final thought that a friend of mine (a fifty something woman) who is in the throes of midlife crisis (recent first tattoo, open top sports car etc) is the most technically savvy person I know. She must be. She has the latest Apple laptop, iPhone, Nintendo something or other, Wii, etc. How much do these items get used? Not much. They are, however proof that she still 'hasn't lost it', is an interesting person, and still very very young.

Confidentially, she is one of the most difficult people I know to talk to, and finds it difficult to hold a conversation with anyone. Still, at least she can tell all her hundreds of twitter followers and facebook friends what a great time she's having.

Old habits die hard

So here we go -

My first blog after years of thinking about it. What shall I say? What is the likelyhood that I'll remember my login details next time I want to think about downloading more of my brain into Blogger for public consumption, and lets be honest - who is likely to want to read my weird musings anyway?

All these questions and more await an answer of sorts.

Of course I won't be revealing anything too personal or contensious just yet as I'm still trying to find my feet and generate enough interest from an as yet unknown audience.

I'll sign off in a mo, but before I do - why the title "Old habits die hard"? Well - my initial reaction to the tool that I'm currently using was 'do it offline and upload it when you're ready and have finished and editted the thing'. Number one - I thought that it should be done offline because I'm one of the old school internet users who still thinks about how long I'm tying up my phoneline and using my data allowance while I'm wasting mine and your time typing rubbish. Secondly editting - Hmm - surely this could defeat the object of a blog as it's designed to show the immediate thoughts and preserve them for all time in cyberspace. How many of us can admit to sending an email and wishing we hadn't with a little hindsight? I know what I'm like and I think that with the luxury of editting this would probably be no more that a ten word sentence instead of the mildly interesting ramble that I've been on for the last five minutes.

That's it for now - but I'm pretty sure I can come up with something much more interesting for next time.

See you then.....

Maximus.