Everyone Needs an iPhone?

Perhaps my bias is evident in the fact that my cell-phone bill shows I used only four minutes last month (but son two racked up over 1500 text messages!), but the above named title of this blog entry has been bugging me for a couple of days now (the author of the aforementioned blog and I once got into a bit of an argument over the importance of emotion management in business; we most certainly respect one another, but do not see eye-to-eye on priorities of life). I find it hard to imagine why everyone would need, let alone want, an iPhone. I can see why anyone might want one. But I can't see why everyone needs one or should want one. It doesn't feed anyone. It doesn't shelter anyone. It doesn't clean the environment, or reduce poverty. It doesn't grow any flowers or create beauty or perform any labor. It doesn't rock any babies to sleep at night, or hold anyone's hand when they're dying.

Yesterday during my walk, I was recalling my teenage years. We didn't even have a telephone during many of those years. (And no, this wasn't all that long ago.) I know from that experience that instantaneous communication is a great blessing, useful, and even a necessity in its basic form. I'm not objecting to technology (goodness knows that would be hypocritical of me!), what I am objecting to is the skewed view that technology should be glorified and adulated in a way that overlooks matters of greater importance. There are many things more important in this life than having a gizmo with all the latest and unnecessary bells and whistles on it.

Having said all that, I'll add that son two has been reading about rhetoric and argument this summer (the joys of discovering an adult brain). He would probably point out that Jason never meant that everyone should have an iPhone; there was an unspoken assumption presumed in his statement, and it goes like this: Everyone (like me) should have an iPhone. And that, I would imagine, is probably quite true. If I were a brilliant multi-millionaire venture capitalist, I would probably find an iPhone a near necessity, too.

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