The technology I chose to put under the microscope is the Iphone. It’s a “multi-media” device with the ability to play music, video, browse the internet, photos, play games and a phone. Basically it’s taken over everything.
Neil Postman says “A medium is a technology within which a culture grows,”(Postman) if that’s the case, I would say the iPhone is a clear representative. Actually it has outgrown any technology in our society with its numerous functions and efficiency. It has taken over the CD player, radio and other mediums of music, taken over the TV and the computer with its visual aspect and the phone as a form of communication. A culture has sprouted from the iPhone due to the vast marketing of the product, from subway ads, television commercials and word of mouth. People buy it to stay tech-savvy, for all the capabilities, for communication and even to be cool.
Postman praises the internet for its efficiency, calling it the “Niagara of Information” (Postman) which I find similar to the iPhone, as it is the St. Helens Volcano of functions. Postman later says the internet has turned us into internet junkies, in comparison to the iPhone, I’d say it has made us “application junkies” downloading everything you can find.
The purpose of the iPhone is to take your life on the go, bring everything you need anywhere and that’s what it’s successfully doing. It’s taken over our life and has made it faster but definitely like the typewriter, it has undermined us. From storytelling and memorization to printed text and now to saving everything you see on an iPhone. We’ve become too dependent on our little devices that where ever we go we need to bring it along. Apple intelligently marketed the product so everyone can find a use. For example, the map application, people who physically look through maps or people who are open to discovery used to travel and explore to find a route to their direction but now in the iPhone era they resort to their map. Now all we needs is an application to help us live our own lives.
Postman, Neil. "The Humanism of Media Ecology." Inaugural Media Ecology Association Convention (2000):
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