The Post-Apple World

Hello blogosphere! We all know that Steve Jobs just died. It’s everywhere and it’s a big deal. The end of an era. Instead of writing directly about him, my post is inspired by his legacy: the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad, and all the other competing technology he brought about indirectly.

It’s often talked about, that my generation is losing the ability to communicate interpersonally, that we spend all of our time staring at the little screen of our phones and not enough time really seeing the world around us. Our brains move at technology speed so we don’t have time for real human relationships; we turn to Tumblr, we turn to twitter, we live vicariously online before even trying to live in real life. We come out of the womb wearing earbuds and flicking our parents the middle finger. And to complicate the issue, we start revolutions through facebook and we change the world without even having to talk face to face.

Up until about a week ago, I thought this was just a huge over-generalization. Sure, there’s some truth there, some people are like that, but look at me! I only use my phone to text and make calls. I only have one iThing. I hardly ever buy products online. I hang out with friends in person. I’m on the speech team so I know how to communicate without saying the word “like”. Ding ding ding, here I am, the exception to the rule! But I was wrong.

I went with my mom to a store called Akira, where employees work on commission, to look for a homecoming dress. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a young salesperson named Julia. She started asking me questions about the dance and I was a little taken aback by her boldness, but I answered her inquiries, hoping she’d leave me to shop. But Julia did not—she’d give me about 10 minutes to look around and pull a few things, then run over to ask if she could add them to my dressing room. In my head, I thought, why can’t I just hold onto them and pick my own dressing room when I’m ready? Out loud, I said, “Uhhhh sure” (eloquent, no?). It didn’t stop there. Julia meandered by every time I came out, complimenting the dress I had on, making accessory suggestions. Just being a general bother.

In my mom’s generation, friendly salespeople were welcomed, even expected. Piling on compliments, making sure shoppers were comfortable, it was all part of what made a good salesperson. For me, I usually get in, find what I want, and get out, without ever having to speak to anyone. I’ve lost the notion of the shopper-salesperson relationship. And this is only the beginning of the relationships I’ve lost. I’m afraid that all the accusations mentioned a few paragraphs above are true, but they’re not attributable to owning the technology anymore. You don’t have to have an iPad to think in iPad speeds, you don’t have to have a facebook to feel more comfortable expressing yourself with the anonymity of the internet. It seems that no one growing up in this time is immune, not even me.

But this brings up the curious question of whether this change in the way we communicate, thus relate to others, is cause to regret the times of our parents. Is it okay that we communicate differently? Should we even bother criticizing the modern mindset and technology dependence? From close up, it seems like important values are being lost, but if we step back, are we just going through a normal historical change? Can the post-Apple world be equated with the post-automobile world or the post-Cold War world?

I’d appreciate any thoughts or comments from people of all ages. This is not an issue that can be addressed by one generation.