[August 2nd marks the 100th anniversary of inventor Alexander Graham Bell’s death. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy some famous phones in American culture, leading up to a special weekend post on AGB’s life and legacies!]
On one
loss, one gain, and one effect too close to call with the defining technology
of our age.
1)
Wandering: In the summer of 2002, I had the
opportunity to spend
a month in Rome as part of my grad school program; it was and remains one
of the greatest experiences of my life to date. There are lots of reasons why,
but very high on the list is the simple but stunning experience of wandering
the city, often looking for somewhere or something in particular but always
doing so in a meandering way that allowed for every one of my favorite a-ha
moments. That experience might have still been possible if I had a smartphone
with a maps app, but at the very least I’d have likely been looking down at my
phone a good bit of the time, and would have missed the unexpected,
perspective- and life-altering views that I wrote about in that hyperlinked
post. Maps has been immeasurably helpful in my driving life, but I do wonder
how much wandering we’ve lost along the way.
2)
Music: I do my best not to be a luddite nor a
curmudgeon about technology, though, and one surprising and absolutely
delightful benefit of smartphones for me has been helping me get back into
albums. I know that might be blasphemy to vinyl lovers, and as someone who grew
up on cassette tapes I’ll always have a nostalgic fondness for flipping the
tape over and pressing play on side two. (For my money, the best side two
opening track is Midnight
Oil’s “The Dead Heart”
from Diesel and Dust.) But thanks to
the combination of Apple Music on my phone and the ability to connect that
phone to my car radio and play it on my commute, I’ve been able over the last
couple years to listen to countless albums in their entirety—childhood favorites
like that magisterial Midnight Oil record, new releases like The
Killers’ excellent Pressure Machine,
and so, so many more. I know the debates
over digital music, but it’s been an amazing game-changer for this lifelong
listener.
3)
Conversation: This is a really tough one for
me to call. On the one hand, as a divorced single dad I am forever indebted to
the ability of my teenage sons and I, thanks almost entirely to our
smartphones, to stay connected in so many ways during the times that we’re
apart (I’m particularly fond of texting gifs and emojis back and forth as we
watch a Celtics basketball game “together,” for example). Compared to the first
post-divorce years, when I would often only hear from the boys in my solo weeks
during our short bedtime phone calls, these new layers of conversation are
incredibly welcome and moving. But (and here comes the curmudgeon side of me,
#sorrynotsorry) I will never be anything other than flabbergasted at the number
of people who are on their smartphone while in an in-person conversation with
someone at the same time. I know distraction is possible in any circumstance,
with or without technology, but I think these little computers in our pockets
have offered a whole new batch of hugely easy ways not to be connected to what
and who is right in front of us.
AGB post
this weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Famous cultural phones you’d highlight?
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