The Social Impact of the iPhone

Last week, this section ran a piece titled "Facebook and the Future of Politics" in which the author argued that, as a result of the current availability of information and the likelihood of increased availability in the future, society would be forced to accept greater indiscretions by our leaders and that this will be of practical benefit by making us more accepting of the fallibility of our elected representatives. The case for or against a higher standard for our representatives is not one I intend to make here; instead of analyzing how this information sharing will affect elections, I am more concerned with the impact these advances in technology have had on the interactions between people and what the result means on a grander scale.

Over the past decade plus, Americans (and for that matter, the global community) have become increasingly connected and, at the same time, increasingly isolated. The culprit is as prevalent as it is mundane. I'm talking about cell phones. This trend is a recent development, but it's setting in at younger ages. Thirteen-year-old girls who saw Mean Girls and got the wrong take-home message and are now dressed like they work on 25th and North at 3 a.m. (every father's dream for his daughter) are constantly texting friends and LTAO at funny acronyms their BFFs send them. The younger girls see this and then they have to have the new Blackberry too. It's a self-perpetuating cycle. What could possibly be so important that they can't either make a two-minute phone call or wait until they see the person they need to text and tell them that Spencer broke up with Tracy on The Hills and they don't know if they're going to make it through the trauma? The correct response is nothing.

Still, these pre-pubescent adolescents are not the only perpetrators of the crime of cell phone abuse. Play this game with your friends who have iPhones: While you're hanging out with them count the number of times you go an entire conversation without being interrupted at some point by them taking out their iPhone and citing some Wikipedia fact or showing you a sweet new app they just downloaded or texting their girlfriend sweet nothings. Then compare your numbers with friends - it's called the iPhone challenge and the winner might get to one, but more than likely they won't. You can do the same with other phones too (though iPhones are the most fun). Just choose any friend who is constantly texting and draw up a scoreboard. It's fun for the whole family.

Try to think back to a time before cell phones - freshmen this may be difficult for you, so try to think of a world without cell phones. No it's not the post-apocalyptic world of The Watchmen, it's the 1990s. A time when strangers would talk to each other on airplanes and trains or in bars. A time when families could have dinner without being interrupted by "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. A time when we would have debates that ended in consensus or fistfights instead of one guy silencing the crowd by raising his illuminated iPhone above his head and citing Wikipedia as the final word.

I'm not trying to discredit the sizeable impact these advances have had in easing everyday life - I'd still be driving around in Maine somewhere from my 2008 Spring Break trip if I hadn't had that Garmin. And I'm not trying to say that cell phones aren't necessarily positive (they made finding friends in D.C. on Inauguartion Day possible). It's just that maybe we've strayed a little too far in our pursuance of the ease of modern life. Instead of calling our friends to see how they're doing, we opt for the impersonal text. (As an aside, texting often results in confusion and misunderstanding which usually breed anger or insult. Something to keep in mind when talking to members of the opposite sex, sarcasm doesn't translate to text format very well.) Instead of having a casual conversation with our seatmate on the train, we choose to play games on our phones or text people we already know. It's more comfortable not having to reach out. We're becoming increasingly closed off from people we don't know as we become more connected with people we already do. Whether or not this is a positive development is up to each person to decide for themselves, but if you feel as I do, the next time you're riding down to D.C. on the MARC, you'll put away the cell phone and attempt to engage the person across from you. Although they may be too busy texting their friends . . .