The iPhone & Skype: The Technology of Today & Tomorrow
Image Courtesy of Yutaka TsutanoWhen everyone else was buying Atari and playing Pong, my brothers and I were playing run-the-bases with a few other neighborhood families still uncorrupted by video games and technology. When everyone else was buying Nintendo, my brothers and I finally succumbed and then managed to convince our mother to buy us Atari. Whenever everyone else was buying Sega Genesis, my brothers and I bought Nintendo. This theme of always being a step behind our peers, technologically at least, continued throughout most of our lives. Cars, cell phones, cable, internet. You name it, we didn’t get it, until everyone else had it. This same Johnny-come-lately attitude that stalled my acceptance into the late 20th and early 21st century world has again kept me behind the technological curve of life-altering innovation, but I am happy to say I’ve arrived in two significant ways. So far in the past three months, my life seems all the better for it.
Since the genesis of this site, my strong opposition to many of the technologies of the past ten years, especially the internet, has been made very clear. And while the irony is not lost on me as I write for an online journal, I still have my reservations about the average citizen's use of technology today. Younger generations, especially, seem bent on nothing other than mindless pursuits and disturbing abuses with their soul-sucking, interpersonal skill destroying, self-absorbed enhancing, critical thought decaying technology…but, I digress. All Bradburian and Orwellian qualms aside, I have recently acquired and been routinely utilizing two relatively recent innovations: Apple’s iPhone 4 and the online, real-time, visual communication Skype.
After losing my cell phone one weekend, a phone that routinely caused snickers from some and flat-out laughter from others, I learned that I was due for an upgrade with my contract. It may have been the extra lighting on the display case or the never endless pursuit of social acceptance, but I was immediately attracted to the iPhone 4. Aside from the standard period of discomfort in holding, carrying, and answering a new cell phone, I otherwise immediately embraced this incredible device, and I haven’t looked back. Amongst all of the hoopla over the apps and games, I have found the phone’s greatest asset, which isn’t necessarily singular to the iPhone, is its internet access.
I like to think I use the internet responsibly. With the iPhone, I have been able to maintain what I feel is a valuable and essential connection to the outside world, via online news, better than ever before. I can now quickly look up local news on Philly.com, check email through my Yahoo account, and read a portion of a chapter on Daily Lit., all while being able to call a friend or family member if the mood strikes me. All these functions have made the iPhone 4 and its connectivity a habitual tool in my life as of late.
Although I continue to consider the detriments to my social interaction with family, friends, and colleagues, I have actually found the phone and its internet as an amazing platform for compelling conversations on everything from world politics to local sports and weather. The smart phone technology seems to create a catalyst to dynamic conversation that eliminates the barriers of ignorance, time, and interest. It has something for everyone and it has it now.
My other major technological advancement of recent months, Skype, has come with the sole purpose of maintaining contact with family that I regretfully don’t see enough. Unfortunately, my brother in the Army who has the three cutest kids on the planet, my nephew, Godson, and two nieces, all live far past driving distance. So for my mother, my other brother, and me, we are unable to enjoy the presence of these beautiful kids, ages 4 going on 5, 3, and 1 going on 2, and watch their growth on a routine basis.
However, the occasional use of Skype, which allows us to video chat in a highly efficient real-time manner, has at least permitted us to watch the kids as they play lovingly with their father and mother, show off paintings, drawings or new clothes, stare in amazement at my dog and say oh-so-adorably, “Big Dog, Big Dog” as they mispronounce his name, and smile joyfully for their grandmother and uncles and say as clearly as possible, “Love you!” All the while living more than a 1000 miles away with a two hour time difference. This incredible enhancement of communication has limited the disappointment in not being able to see the kids grow as other families can, and it has made me appreciate the age we inhabit in a whole new way.
Although I will maintain my apprehensions about where this technology will take us tomorrow, I am confident it can be used to our benefit today. This technology of today can be used for the purposes of education and conversation and connection. This technology of today has value and substance and purpose. This technology of today incites intrigue and amazement and happiness. This is the technology of today, and although I got it a bit late, I’m happy I have it, today.
Communication, Conversation, Orwell, Skype, family, iPhone 4, technology 
Reader Comments (3)
You almost got me. You almost had me calling up my phone company and saying, tack it on. Give me the internet, texting, skype and all. But everything you add, you lose something. What I would lose is far greater than what I would have gain by having easy access to facebook or the news.
I would lose my mind. I would lose my solitude. I would lose self.
I want it bad. I want to have the safety of the internet right at my hand. If I need to know that phrase in Spanish, bang, it is there. If I need to find a synonym for insatiable, then I have it. But the brain should do these things. Easy access, as Carraway wrote awhile back, will make most of our knowledge base antiquated. I couldn't disagree more. The mind needs to work out problems, both large and small. It needs to retain things and process. You need to know your friend's number and the date without looking at your phone. Our intellect can not be served well by losing more of more of its function to a computer. If I have to choose a computer, I choose my brain.
I do not want to be doing something all the time, and I think that is what I-phones and smart phones do. They fill our lives up, when there was stuff already, you just didn't know it yet. The yet, is what we will miss the most when we realize. I watch people drift away in their phone, outside and in, on the train, and driving in the car, mostly back seat passengers. There is value in a present and a presence that is lost by becoming infatuated with a 24 hour news cycle or seeing the latest funny video. You have traded in the real world around you, the sensory experience for a digital version that is not even yours.
You do lose more and more of your imagination. You lose more and more of your ability to be alone. You have traded it in for a connection. The phone works when you want to talk with someone. In that, you can lose yourself constantly, but you need to make a commitment in unison. With texting and surfing, the person can never have another thought in their mind. You can fill up every crevice of nothing in time and space and life, and never come to the idea that you did not accomplish anything at all.
There are real dangers in going digital, just like your family knew by not giving you Attari. You must know your world first, explore it to be good or bad, before we vanguish it. As Huck Finn found out, the river is the better place to be in its natural beauty and away from society's customs. Even Huck realized loneliness is the cost of freedom.
It was a good post and I know my fate will someday be yours. I just want to make sure I have the strength so it won't take over something I already love. Thinking. I am not there yet. I was going to write my own post, but your post is where the ideas emerged from and I appreciate it.
Thanks for the lunch.
First, Mr. Edmonds, let me say how sweet your comments are about your family! I understand how you feel for several reasons. One, my family, like yours, did not have the latest as it was made available, but rather, after it was ubiquitous. But oh, how I loved Intellevision! Secondly, I experienced and thoroughly enjoyed Skype over 10 years ago, when it was on a time delay and very new, courtesy of my "nouveau riche" brother who got a promotion and was transferred for work. My brother and his family moved to AU and as you can imagine, it was very hard on my family, especially my mom, being so far away from them. But on one particular Easter, we were lucky enough to Skype with them and it was awesome. It was dial-up, mind you and it reminded me of the foresight Hanna Barbara had when creating The Jetsons in the 70s, and it was fun! We got to see him and talk with him and his family and it was incredible.
However, there are two other points I'd like to make. First, there were some glitches with the connection,and although hilarious as it was, nonetheless it was obviously a system computer experts had not yet fine-tuned. While we were Skyping, we lost the connection. So my brother called on the phone to let us know in a few minutes, he'd try again and to plug in the computer to the phone line, instead of in the phone. So again, it's Easter, the whole family, including my grandmother is there. We hear the piercing dial-up sound, and wait patiently for the image to appear on the screen, anxiously awaiting to see my nephew in his little bunny ears. Instead, what we got was pretty much pornographic! Somehow, the lines got crossed and we wound up watching (albeit briefly) a naked man pleasuring himself! Well, let me tell you, not only were we shocked, but we were in hysterics! I'm laughing even today as I recall this memorable Easter dinner! My poor brother finally caught up with us and had no idea what happened! Thank God they've ironed out those fine details~!
My other point is this. I 'm kind of worried about how quickly technology advances. I bought my IPhone about a year after it came out. Now not everyone had one (the Razor was still popular), but enough people did and I was due for an upgrade so I bought it. And I do love it, but now there's IPhone 4. And soon they'll be IPhone 8. It's like everything else in technology and most of us middle-classers just can not keep up. So I guess Mr. Edmonds you and I and the rest of them (except Mr. Dugan) can be rest assured that we WILL get the technology, just not right when it's new. But maybe, just maybe, we might be better off...
Thanks for this piece. I enjoyed it thoroughly!
That was a hilarious anecdote Godiva and just proves the problems with technology, albeit the wonderful benefits you and Edmonds speak of. I had Intellevision. It was horrible. I could never figure out that circle. What world did they invent that in?
I did spend hours losing to the computer in Pit Fall -- the game still gives me nightmares. When will the alligator open and those danm snakes. Boxing is still the worst graphics for a video game I have ever seen. How did they consider those blue and red things that looked like tetris creations to be boxers? The whole system was crap, but I defended it against everyone, because Attari was King and I don't know why my mom and dad brought it. They don't deserve the blame, but I laugh to think how the salesman convinced them to buy it. It will make a good short story.
Good memories until I go to sleep.