THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
Twenty years after it was first mooted, the iPhone has made Apple the world’s most valuable company (with a market capitalisation of $4 trillion – the first publicly traded company to reach the mark of $1 trillion eight years ago – but, in a way, that’s the least interesting thing about it.
What’s more significant is that the late Steve Jobs’ iconic invention sparked off the smart-phone revolution that changed the way we humans function – for better and for worse.
Jobs’ seminal insight was that what was up to then just a one-dimensional mobile phone could be a powerful, networked hand-held device which could be used, not only to make voice calls but to access the internet – and with all that that entails – and do a myriad other things like check your bank balance, check your physical activity, monitor you heart and other bodily functions, check out at the checkout, and, oh, take photos, those ubiquitous selfies. And the biggie? Keep you wired up, tuned in and turned out to the big wide world, effectively making it today the global village once cited by Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher who also coined the adage that the medium is the message.
The ongoing debate on the harm to children using smartphones, is part of the downside to this world of constant connectivity in which people are never offline and are increasingly addicted to their devices to the point of social isolation. Become those pedestrians who walk into obstacles because they are looking at screens rather than at where they’re going, or crash the car for similar reasons
The smart-phone is the most vivid example available of how technology can be – simultaneously – both good and bad, enabling and disabling, inspiring and disillusioning. The technical capabilities of modern phones are formidable and the ingenuity of the apps that harness those capabilities are often mind-blowing. But, at the same time, smart-phones are also surveillance devices made in hell – tracking one’s every move, click, swipe and shake. And some of the apps that run on them are tailor-made vehicles for, sadly as we have learned, stalking, bullying, and harassment.
One publican of my acquaintance, has the right idea. He is offering a free pint of Guinness to all customers who relinquish their phone in an effort to get back the old local pub atmosphere.
His was one of the first pubs in Ireland to embrace the Guinness-run initiative but then tweaked it to try and make customers realise how much they rely on their phone.
“We started this one Friday evening, especially for the work crowd to have a drink and completely relax without continuously checking their emails or social media,” he told me.
“I’ve worked in the bar trade for 30 years so I’ve been there before the trend of smart-phones when everyone talked to each other, and even the bar tender, over a pint. Now I’ve six different chargers behind the counter to suit all makes pf smart-phones.”
He is not alone in his thinking. A recent survey of 4,150 16 to 75-year-olds across Ireland and Britain by Deloitte, which has 3,000 professionals in the Republic, found:
* More than half admit to using their phone while walking; 10% while crossing the road.
* A quarter of 16-to=19-year-olds respond to messages they receive in the middle of the night.
* And 55 to75-year-old ‘silver swipers’ are the fastest-growing adopters of smart-phones.
According to my psychologist friend from Magherafelt: “Some people have a significant issue with not being able to disengage from their smart devices. While using such for everyday tasks, work, and socialising with friends and family is perfectly normal, not being able to put them down while engaged in a conversation with your significant other or a friend who’s sitting in front of you may denote an increasing problem.”
The night after he and I had dinner, I awoke to write this column. Happenstance (an oddly chance situation) had had its way with me. My iPhone was gone. Lost. Somewhere between the restaurant, the taxi and home. All attempts to locate it have proved futile. I am now 36 hours without it, and growing edgier by the minute,
I feel cut-off, adrift. Naked.
I swear you could not make this up.
NEWSFLASH: This just in ….iPhone found, thanks to an honest, eagle-eyed taxi man.
