iPhone Attention Deficit

Oct 16

While there are many advances in mobile technology, there is none more prominent (nowadays anyways) than the Apple iPhone. Subsequent to its release in June 2007, it has made a definite mark on society. It has created huge lines, buzz in media, envy in people’s eyes, and a huge increase in revenue for the companies involved. Despite much hype and doubt, it has been a game-changing device for the smartphone world.

It has a user interface that is the standard to which all others are (now) compared, it is sleek, it is expensive enough to stay out of the hands of the less privileged (like Coach purses for girls), and it has an entire fanatical subculture to support it. There are some people who use it for its useful features, others who just want it so that they can be hip with the times, and others who will probably say that it’s an essential part of their life.

The thing is, I think that we need to help these people. Their iPhones are taking over their lives. Here we thought that Attention-Deficit Disorder (although this has been replaced by Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in psychology as of DSM-IV, but I could not apply the hyperactivity to iPhone users) was something that we could treat. Unfortunately it seems like we are inducing it in people. And while I am talking specifically about the iPhone, the general principle still stands that people are getting worse at maintaining their concentration on tasks at hand. They have instant messaging that they’re always connected to, text messages that encourage deplorable grammar, and the ever annoying Twitter (dumb as far back as 2007), which combines all of these things at one time.

Most people with iPhones seem to have an incessant need to check them. People need to stop this. They need to start living lives that do not involve the Internet. Let us move onward from our digital slavery!

I am slightly amused that I am writing such a thing for a couple of reasons:

1. Hello this is a blog, which is an entirely digital medium.
2. I am in front of a computer at least 8 hours a day as a software engineer. Usually more like 10, including off hours personal time.