My One True Love

             I knew the moment I laid my eyes on the sleek silhouette of the iPhone 4s that I would not last a single minute longer without it. Having endured years of suffering with my half-chewed, antique of a blackberry, this was my chance to unleash the tech savvy diva lurking inside of me.  It was there, in the middle of the Willowbend mall in Plano, Texas, that I met what would soon be the love of my life. As the gleaming beauty of its true magnificence lured me into the Apple store, I could feel the worries of the world slowly drift into nothingness, along with the dollars in my bank account.  Holding my new found treasure firmly in my hands; I could tell that my life was about to change.

The iPhone 4s has enhanced my day-to-day life because it improves the communication experience with iMessage. Having a mother who constantly feels the need to be updated on your every possible action of the day can be difficult to cope with to some people; however, after the iphone came into my possession, I have been able to manage. The once menacing text after text asking if I had eaten lunch or studied for my poli sci quiz no longer annoy me thanks to the magic of iMessage. By turning on my read receipts I can basically avoid my mothers texts until I have the time at the end of my day to sit down and converse. If she asks why I didn’t respond? Simple! I didn’t see them; thus relieving the tension and annoyance that would have developed between my mother and I, and allowing for the easy flow of conversation at the designated (by me) time.

Not to say the iPhone is only useful to those of us with needy mothers. It is also beneficial because it allows its users to stay updated on other social communities that they are members of. Want to know an added bonus? For those of us brave enough to add our mothers on a social network, such as Facebook, we now have an additional way of keeping our moms feel included in our lives by the simple step of updating our status or posting a picture. This involvement in a social media allows me personally to keep in contact with distant family members, such as my great grandma in Colorado, and that second cousin I’ve met once at last years family reunion. It also allows for freedom of expression, because we all love posting those song lyrics that we feel relate directly to our lives, as if the song was written about you.

In addition, the iPhone 4s facilitates in the quality and efficiency of communication. I am able to send and receive emails, transfer money between my almost nonexistent bank accounts, text back the GroupMe i’m in with my roommates to tell them to replace my diet coke they drank, and even check the weather report all on one small handheld device. When you take into consideration the true definition of communication it can mean any message you wish to convey. The amount of information transmitted to me from my apps and vice versa in one day is almost too immense to believe. However, this colossal flood of nonstop communication of information can sometimes be distracting.

The iPhone 4s in all its glory does have its pitfalls. The distraction factor in using such a piece of machinery is alarmingly clear when I consider the amount of time I spend on my phone. It is always with me, always charged, and always in use. Does this mean that I am more tuned in to what’s going on in my phone’s virtual world than what’s going on in my actual current world of space?  Seeing as how I am the kind of person who texts someone  “I see you” instead of taking first initiative to walk my happy feet over to them to say hello, I would say so. So one can deduct that the iPhone may possibly de-socialize society and decrease the quality of face-to-face communication. Yet, we continue to rave over the iphone and all its advances in technology, perhaps revealing that we are willing to give up these once prized aspects of communication for a shiny new toy?