iPhony

Do I really need to see what @johncmayer has added to my twitterfeed four times daily to be properly in tune with my surroundings? There's much to be said for being well-connected to the world, but it's easy to take this accessibility to unhealthy extremes. A few months with the it-device of the past several years has spoiled me. Whereas I used to feel naked and cut-off from society if my cell phone strayed too far from my pocket, now similar feelings are aroused by being without reliable 3G internet service. While I know @nytimes probably will not delete their article history every 30 minutes, that does not always assuage my irrational fear. Perhaps this device has gotten me used to unnaturally-instant gratification.

This being said, will I be trading my iPhone in for a beeper and coin-operated pay phone anytime soon? Certainly not. I do not see this as necessarily hypocritical. Keeping up with the present day need not be a bad thing. Convenience and complications--each brought on in equal doses by increases in technology--can each add much to one's life experience in beneficial ways. Can we write this off to the world getting crazier and more hectic? No, I would say our desire to be 'normal' is just as intense and all-consuming as ever. It is just that normal keeps becoming more and more insane.