{"id":1371,"date":"2010-06-22T17:34:10","date_gmt":"2010-06-22T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scaredpoet.com\/blog\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2010-06-22T17:38:17","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T21:38:17","slug":"iphone-hysteria-gets-a-little-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/?p=1371","title":{"rendered":"iPhone hysteria gets a little crazy…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this post today<\/a> on a popular iPhone discussion forum:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This in response to a story that indicates AT&T won’t be selling the iPhone to the general public (short of pre-orders) until Tuesday, June 29th<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good christ, people. \u00c2\u00a0We need to get a grip.<\/p>\n

I admit I was a little annoyed about the whole pre-order process. \u00c2\u00a0Actually, VERY annoyed. \u00c2\u00a0Mainly because right now and for the past week, I don’t have<\/em> a phone of any kind. \u00c2\u00a0But you know something? \u00c2\u00a0Going without my shiny, expensive piece of plastic and glass has taught me something: it just isn’t that important<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Initially, I went through quite a bit of withdrawal. \u00c2\u00a0When I had a minute to kill, I would always reach for my iPhone and check my e-mail, or twitter, or fire off some text messages, or look up something on wikipedia… only to find that my trusty all-knowing companion wasn’t there anymore. \u00c2\u00a0I found that when I was eating lunch, I was incredibly uneasy and didn’t know what to do with myself because I was accustomed to poking away at websites and news apps while munching on my sandwich in solitude.<\/p>\n

After a couple of days of this though, I started realizing something: there were people<\/em> around me. \u00c2\u00a0And, I could talk<\/em> to them. \u00c2\u00a0Granted, they were a little uneasy about this too. \u00c2\u00a0It took a little prodding to get some folks to look up from their<\/em> phones and laptops and iPad<\/a>s and kindles<\/a> and nooks<\/a>, only to have to acclimate themselves to the idea that someone was actually in front of them starting up a conversation<\/strong>. \u00c2\u00a0Somehow, in the three short years that mobile devices have allegedly revolutionized “social networking,” it seems we’ve almost forgotten how to actually socialize<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And sadly, it has come to this: \u00c2\u00a0people are (probably sarcastically, but maybe not) threatening to cut themselves<\/a> if they can’t get the newest, shiniest piece of plastic, metal and glass on Thursday, June 24th. \u00c2\u00a0This saddens me greatly.<\/p>\n

And so, when my new iPhone is ultimately delivered – something that up to recently I too, was anticipating with excitement and perhaps a little overboard hysteria – I’m just going to set it aside and let it sit in its box for a while. \u00c2\u00a0I could rip the packing open and activate it right away, but see, when the delivery comes I’m likely going to be working… and you know, living my life<\/em>… and I shouldn’t drop everything I’m doing to give this thing my undivided attention, at the expense of everyone and everything around me. \u00c2\u00a0That’s just stupid, and insane.<\/p>\n

So, in its box it will stay. \u00c2\u00a0Then, I’ll go home, enjoy a nice dinner, relax in front of the TV (remember those?), chat with friends of mine and my significant other, and then maybe I’ll remember that oh yes!<\/em> I have a phone again. \u00c2\u00a0And then I’ll plug it into my mac, let the ghost of my previous iPhone re-incarnate itself into the new one via a restore from backup<\/a>, see that all is good, and then turn in for the night.<\/p>\n

And maybe the next morning I’ll remember to take my new iPhone to work with me. \u00c2\u00a0Maybe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This may anger people who are talking about camping out in reservation lines hours or even days in advance<\/a> to get something which they are not guaranteed to receive. \u00c2\u00a0If this is you, then I have to ask you: why are you letting an expensive gadget define your life so much? \u00c2\u00a0Why are we treating these things like pieces of addictive crack? \u00c2\u00a0Why is it that we’re all getting in such riotous, ravenous moods and binding ourselves down over something that is supposedly designed to set us free?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this post today on a popular iPhone discussion forum: This in response to a story that indicates AT&T won’t be selling the iPhone to the general public (short of pre-orders) until Tuesday, June 29th. Good christ, people. \u00c2\u00a0We need to get a grip. I admit I was a little annoyed about the whole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gadgets-widgits-and-whatzits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1379,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaredpoet.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}