Journal 5- iPhone 18 & Reddit
This morning as I sit on my desk, I caved in and opened Reddit. It sucked in 20 mins of my morning time without even realizing what I was doing. In those 20 mins I felt these emotions in the exact order: fear, envy, outrage, excitement, fear and repeat. This went on for whole 20 mins.
The world is excited about the new iPhone. On the other hand, I think it is the epitome of consumption based society. The iPhone is the perfect moonchild product of a capitalist world. You have to understand that if iPhone fails, everything else in the capitalist society is going to fail. I truly believe the senior executives, behind boardrooms and in private conversations at big companies like Ford, Apple, Starbucks talk a lot of sh*t about Europeans, and the eastern society. Europeans because their approach to life is vastly different than the American way of life. In my travels across Europe, I noticed one thing. They couldn't care more about the new gadgets, cars, etc. They work to live and not the other way around like their American counterparts. Most Europeans still use basic Android phones and do not race in lines to line up for the new iPhone. Nor their telecom companies trick them into getting into expensive multi-year contracts for a phone connection and a phone with it.
Can you imagine a senior executive at Verizon or Rogers seething at this way of life? I know I can. I suspect, in my own anecdotal research, an iPhone user is more gullible to be sold more products than any other consumer group. The iPhone serves as a status symbol and once bought you enter the "us vs them" social dynamic. This iPhone user now is inherently made to believe they are superior, more rich, and doing better than the non-iPhone users. It is by design. How has Apple accomplished this? I can write a multi page thesis on this alone but I won't get into the weeds of it as I am sure you already know this phenomenon to be true. If you are an iPhone user and reading this blog post, I imagine you must be calling me an idiot by now. But if you are truthful and honest to yourself, I think you would realize what Apple has done by successfully making you a consumer of their products. They have robbed you of feeling a sense of community and belonging. The average iPhone user builds up a mental block against non-iPhone users. I have seen it myself. This is even more prevalent in teens and young adults. If you don't have an iPhone, you haven't made it and therefore do not belong with us.
Apple has, unwittingly or not, succeeded in creating a cult. There are many researchers and authors who have written on cults. By turning their brand and their audience into the "us vs them" hive group, they have made the average iPhone user isolated and deprived of social connection. This user is perfect for the capitalist system. This user is already trained to believe in 'us vs them' through Apple hence now you can sell them more stuff and services. As per one survey iPhone users are more likely to buy beauty and fashion products. This survey used a direct correlation but I suspect this goes much beyond if you factor in indirect correlation. Would an iPhone user be more likely to buy overpriced and sugary coffee from starbucks? Would an iPhone user be more likely to be in debt to buy apple products, vacations they cannot wait to take pictures of using their iPhone for instagram, a new car to keep up the appearance of doing better than "them" etc. You get where I am going with this.
Now I realize I might have offended a lot of folks reading this; intention is not to but merely understand what Apple has mastered. I am in no shape or form taking a dig at an iPhone user. This blog post is for those seeking redemption from the modern tech and the web of "us vs them" tactic being used by big companies to keep you isolated. If you scroll to the top, even I fall for it still (browsing reddit). By keeping us in constant isolation and away from the real world by making us spend most of our hours online, they can sell more useless things to you and me by disguising them as solutions. The solution is rather simple actually- giving up 100% of modern tech. I am not talking about selling off your car, microwave, appliances etc. I am talking about anything that makes you feel emotions like "us vs them".
Afterall, all we have is each other on this tiny rock in this lonely universe.