Thanksgiving 2010--We are thankful for technology.

This past week was Thanksgiving break. Since I am far from my actual home, I went to my aunt's house where they always have a feast and great company topping off somewhere around 16 people in total. It's always a jolly good social time.

As I do every year, I shared some great conversations, and some interesting topics came up.

For one, my extended cousin expressed her desire to own an iPad. Hearing the word 'iPad' ignited this question and I blurted it out: "What is the iPad even for?" Honestly, I don't know. I don't get it. It's a giant iPod. iPods and MacBooks and iPhones do just fine. I don't see what this was created for. Is it supposed to be a digital planner? A smaller, totable computer? I have no idea. And apparently, my cousin couldn't answer that either. When she couldn't, I asked her why she even wanted it. She couldn't answer that either. Technology has simply become a novelty. If you can't explain what about the fabulous iPad is what causes you to want it, then there's a problem. I can't say I don't relate to her, though. I used to abhor the idea of owning an iPhone...now it's number one on my Christmas list. Go figure. I'm one of them.

On top of the iPad conversation, Facebook came up at the actual dinner table. This was disconcerting, because I actually hadn't thought about Facebook or the Internet for that matter, since Tuesday. I made it a FULL TWO DAYS, people! That's huge.

Anyway, we all discussed how certain members at the table had Facebook, how it was fun to connect with people, and some people used to have an account but deleted them. On top of that, we discussed why the people chose to delete their account, who would do such a thing, etc. A couple of my family members also made fun of some of the older men who didn't have an account at all, to which one replied, "What would I even do with that thing?" Oh, the things you could do, sir.

As I mentioned briefly, I limited my Internet-usage over the past few days. Of course, upon coming back to campus and having a stable, constant Internet connection, all of that hope was lost. And boy, the emails, notifications and messages I had missed! >_<

Snowballing off of that, I've recently started limiting my usage of my iPod when I'm in transit. Walking to class in the "silence" is an odd feeling, but as Colin mentioned in class, you kind of get used to it. After a few days, I wasn't urged to put my iPod on at all, for the mere effort of taking it out of my purse, unwinding the cord, and plugging it into my ears seemed to be pointless, I'd be home shortly.

I'm learning?

Really?

Last week, we watched Windows' latest atrocity--a commercial for the Windows Phone 7. First of all, what is so significant about the number 7? Just because the Windows 7 software works "better" than my old pal Vista, is that the reason to capitalize on it? No.

Anyway, the commercial features people in various situations paying more attention to the phone they're using than driving a car, urinating, walking down the aisle, etc. It's incredibly ironic because HELLO! this is a PHONE commercial making fun of people abusing phones. Silly, Windows! You're not helping people to lessen their use! You've created yet another useless product to distract the world. This commercial is useless to me, for it is claiming to sell a phone that will lessen the time you spend on it. A phone, no matter how many bells and whistles, is still a phone.

I'm going to have to call bullshit, and not just because I'm loyal to Steve Jobs.