Thoughts on the reigning technological cult

Everywhere you look these days, electronic devices are invading human life: computers, laptops, tablets, smart phones, dumb phones, MP3 players, Blu-Ray players, etc., etc.. The list is endless. I remember not so long ago (but long enough to make me uncomfortably aware of the march of time) when a time with MP3 players, particularly iPods were just emerging as the epitome of cool in classrooms and malls everywhere. By that time I was in high school and authority figures in charge of children were having enough trouble getting control of cell phone use to be overly concerned with the coming tide of portable technology. Just abut the time iPods hit the adolescent scene, I had only just gotten over my envy of everyone else's much fancier portable CD players. In fact, I thought I would be part of the early adopter crowd of a new technology that would be become ubiquitous: the minidisc. Although the minidisc did enable me to put up to 4 hours(!) of MP3s on a single disc, the technology never really even achieved being in the general awareness of the populace. It was, I think, a matter of poor timing because not long after minidisc players became more widely available, MP3 players washed ashore and devastated everything in their wake.

The rise of the iPod (which I use here to refer generally to all MP3 players, both ubiquitous and rare), was the beginning of a landslide of portable electronic devices that would occur, taking over for outdated and bulky technologies and permanently altering everyday life and human interactions. At this time laptops were beginning to become more powerful, lighter, and smaller, making the idea of lugging one around on a regular basis almost conceivable. Cell phones began to transition from being merely phones to being music players as well as personal schedulers vis a vis the Blackberry. Wifi became prevalent and widely accessible, and technology began to cut cords out as much as possible. And all the while, devices were getting smaller, more powerful, and more integral to modern life. Indeed, by the time I was in college, trying to meet someone without the use of a cell phone left you feeling stranded, helpless, and alone.  And less than a decade later we arrive at the present with smart phones and tablets largely replacing the everyday use of computers or laptops, the general inability to witness life events with our own eyes rather than through a small screen, and the introduction of internet addiction disorder to the DSM-V.

My purpose, however, is not to examine the alarming impact of technology on humans, but to explain my preference of one group over another. The Mac vs PC rivalry existed long before those TV commercials put a face to the stereotypes and brought the issue to the general public's attention. In the past decade or so, however, Mac has achieved unprecedented popularity and, in my humble opinion, created a cult (whether intentional or not we will ignore for the moment). I personally am a PC person. I was raised on PCs and so obviously have a bias, but in my limited experience with Macs I have never found them intuitive or easy to use or frankly anything but frustrating. My feelings toward the company used to be much more neutral than they are at present. I will not deny that Mac products, while exorbitantly priced, do appear to be of good quality, can be useful, and reliable. The company as a whole has brought many innovative products to the market and is a leader in portable technology.

Fitzy and my apparent dinosaur

Where I take issue with Apple as a company is not with the products themselves, but rather with the frequency with which they bring out new versions of products and the brief duration of support of their products. Apple has attained cult status with people lining up for hours eagerly awaiting the debut of every new (or new variation) of their products. The frequency of their debuting products encourages materialism, particular among the most devout of their followers and an unpardonable generation of electronic waste as devices that are perhaps 1 or 2 years old are replaced with the latest and greatest. Of course, I was willing to tolerate the follies of Apple fandom before I was personally affected by the company's character. I received a 1st generation iPad upon starting medical school in the fall of 2010, just a few short months after its release in April of that year. As it was a gift, I determinedly used it in school. While I am not the best about updating my electronic devices as promptly as I should, you can imagine my surprise when last year I attempted to update my iPad after finding many of my apps no longer worked properly only to find that Apple no longer supported my device! And not only that, but that they had ceased to support the 1st generation iPad in the fall of 2012, just over two years after its release! I continue to struggle on with my 3.5 year-old iPad with its poorly functioning (or in many cases non-functioning) apps and frequent crashes because, call me old fashioned, but I do not think that one should be expected to replace a $500+ device after so short of time as two years.

Why do I bring this up now? This past week, Microsoft announced that it will no longer support its Windows XP operating system which was originally released in 2001, nearly 12 years ago. I could not help but notice the stark contrast between a company supporting a product for 12 years and one that supports a product for 2 years. I understand that newer versions of the iPad have many features that the original does not such as a camera, microphone, ability to Face Chat (is that one word or two?), etc., but the lack of these features does not make the original iPad any less useful of a device for those who are not bothered by its deficiencies. While the lack of these new features certainly contributed to the decision to cease to support the first generation iPad, this stodgy old PC user cannot quite accept a turnover time of 2 years when accustomed to potentially six times as long.

RIP Windows XP. Here's hoping for another 12 years of Windows 7 (and hopefully by then the horrors of Windows 8 will have been improved, though I have my doubts).

Fortunately, there are so many other things to distract me from such frustrations as these.