Batuhan: iPhone in Heaven?

Friday, October 7, 2011

WHEN Steve Jobs passed away this week, the whole world—it seems—wept for him. The technology world lost one of its great icons—the man who changed both the world of mobile computing and mobile telephony forever.

There are few names who are up there among the world’s technology elite. Gates, Ellison, and certainly Jobs are a few. These are the trailblazers who set off on their own individual paths, and took the rest of the world with them.

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However, it is perhaps Jobs whose name resounds most loudly among the popular crowd, if not the technology cognoscenti. The Apple Mac, the iPhone and the iPad. Perhaps no one above the age of five (and even this is debatable whether younger ones have as well) will have not heard of these things.

After all, who is the teenager today who does not desire to possess any of these items? Today, it is seen to add to one’s desirability to the opposite sex, to be seen talking into an iPhone, or typing into an iPad. In fact, to be without one is almost a death sentence to any under-25, something that will condemn him or her to the status of a second-class citizen of the world.

All over webdom, and that includes fora like Facebook, Twitter and viral e-mail, lots of accolades have been pouring in for Jobs, from his legions of fans the world over.

One that has struck my attention, among the many, is a quote that reads in part – “Now there will be iPhone in heaven.”

Jobs, admittedly, did what he did for Apple for his own personal ends. After all, he is a rich capitalist, and everything he did in his lifetime was to benefit himself primarily, and others (including mankind) second. But there are others who feel quite strongly that his contributions have benefited people greatly, and that the world is a better place because a man as Steve Jobs lived in it.

In a very real sense, that is true. How could we question the fact that the Apple
products he helped spawn are useful for many people? Designers and graphic artists swear by the Mac. Busy executives rely on their iPads to catch whatever piece of news they can in between their many meetings. And even priests have been known to read the Bible from their iPhones. That is how ubiquitous his products have become.

But there is a side to technology that I have always dreaded, and that is its ability to lure people – especially the young and impressionable – to desire things that they can clearly not yet afford, with sometimes very bad consequences on the desirer. And this more true, probably, in places like the Philippines, where the prices for these items are way beyond the reach of ordinary folk.

In the place where I work, I know of many people with Apple items that cost twice or even more of their monthly salaries. Whichever way you look at this, this is just wrong. How do they pay for these? Why, with credit of course! And many of them have become so indebted through the acquisition of these items, they cannot now seem to get out of the deep spiral of debt they are in.

Some have even been known to commit petty and sometimes serious crimes just to have these things. Some steal, and some (especially women) sell their sexual attractions, just to be able to be seen with these luxuries.

I don’t blame Steve. In his American homeland, he would probably have never imagined the situations I am describing. But I wouldn’t count on the iPhone being in heaven anytime soon. After all, a multitude of sins have already been committed in its name.

(http://asbb-foreignexchange.blogspot.com & http://twitter.com/asbbatuhan)