The New Beginning

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Patrick J. Ford on the iPhone and the End of Civilization

I’m no surly old man, but even at my ripe-young age I can see the iPhone for what it is: scary. It mainstreams a world previously left only to 80 hour a week workaholics, a world where every moment is dictated by a new email, a new text message, new stock quotes, new twitter feeds, GPS direction, and, when it all slows down a little, new “Monkey Ball” games, all the while those little white ear buds blast Coldplay and The Pussycat Dolls. The iPhone is a utopian fantasy, where we manage each nook and cranny of our lives in every waking second, leaving no stone unturned and not a minute unoccupied.

In the world of the iPhone, everything revolves around “me”. Everything that I want, I need, and everything that I need, I need right now. Desires become rights. And impossibly enough, while the iPhone gives me everything I want, it leaves me with no time for myself. Who has time to sit and read when you’re forwarding emails, answering text messages, bidding on iPhone accessories, and watching Miss Teen South Carolina on YouTube? What was once mere distraction has now become your life.

Look at all the lonely people. Where do they all belong? On their iPhones.

Apple has preserved its market niche with its toys and computers. How many of my friends were waiting outside an Apple store to buy the new iPhone? I am guessing that a few of the contributors to The American Scene and other young bloggers have purchased one, or are planning to.

The iPhone is a tool that enables us be engrossed with music or videos during every spare moment of our time. We choose to remain prisoners in the cave, we choose to be passive consumers instead of citizens seeking to strengthen community and its cultural life. We may have our excuses, that there is nothing we can do on our own, that one person cannot improve the life of the community, if no one else is interested in cooperating. Yes, the young (and not-so-young) have certain burdens of living in this society, which they did not create and cannot easily escape. But we have to take our stand, pray, be vigilant, and seek other people who share the same goals as we, so that we can live out Christian friendship and spread it. That is as much a part of the 'new' evangelization as telling people about Christ.

How often do I see families walking by, where the kids are in their own worlds, listening to their iPods, while the parents are busy chatting on their cell phones through the use of bluetooth devices. I suppose it isn't that different from 10 or 20 years ago, when the children had walkmans and discmans, although the demographics in the hometown have certainly changed.

Chinese parents (E. Asian?) tend to be rather indulgent towards their children, buying for them the latest gadgets and toys, whether it be computers or game consoles. This sort of consumption is noticeable among all classes--even the poor will buy the same expensive toys for their children. The behavior of Chinese parents is just more noticeable since I'm Chinese, and also because most Chinese in the South Bay are in the middle-class. I don't see very often the poorer Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong or China, except at restaurants. But HK and China are not noted for showing restraint towards consumerism these days.

Now I wouldn't claim that the members of American families don't spend any time talking with one another. But the actual amount of awake time well-off parents spend with children is already rather limited--what fraction of that time is spent in meaningful conversation? Should we be surprised that moral education within the family is no longer being carried it? How many fathers give the direction and advice that children and adolescents need? How many parents prefer to take a laissez-faire approach instead, whether it be fornication, cohabitation, or some other 'risky' behavior? (And how many parents have the ability to engage in a deep conversation with their children? In such a rich country, the intellectual retardation of its adult citizenry is both rather telling and sad.)

Most Americans do their best to avoid the solitude and silence that are needed to encounter the Divine in private prayer. Would they be able to sit through Into Great Silence (official site), much less be inspired by it? Perhaps now more than ever we need the witness of monks and nuns, the Christian contemplatives. Let us pray that our youth at World Youth Day learn something about the Christian liturgical and contemplative traditions, as well as asceticism and take it home.