iPhone Hypnotizing Modern Culture
by AlexDThe morning of thunder and rain that delays the appearance of the sun to a late dawn causes few people to think twice about getting up and running to stand in line outside the closest store selling the iPhone. There is little that would trump this anticipation that our modern tech-gadgets attract - whether observing a release last year in the US or a worldwide release this year - the social response is the same.
The release of the iPhone reveals a little bit about the common behaviour of our time when it comes to having the latest things. It is no longer unusual to expect such a great amount of anticipation over something that is brand new, but what is the point if we just to throw it out and replace it 12 months later with the next greatest invention? It seems we are programmed - hypnotized - to do this.
I cannot recall the last time I got up at the break of dawn, heart pounding, mind racing, running to call one of my friends and tell them how much I appreciate them being a part of my life, or perhaps running out to get a bunch or roses to bring my significant other, or perhaps just sitting and watching the majestic sunrise. No - but the latest commercial product seems to illicit just that reaction time and again.
Just to be clear for a moment - I am not attacking the iPhone or modern technological innovations. I think most of them are quite fascinating. However I do wonder how the genuine things in our life that should be attracting feelings of anticipation, hope, and happiness, have become substituted in the form of commercial objects.
The constant bombardment of emotion-based advertising seems to have replaced at least some of our behavioural associations from values such as self-awareness, trust, and faith, with the products that represent these concepts. Religion seems so often to become tied to faith, and if a product is sold from a reputable brand we tend to place more trust in purchasing it then we would in another human being before getting to know them for the next decade.
In the modern era, that deep-seated sense of trust that is used to trigger emotions like happiness and anticipation is often based in objects. If faith is placed in a book rather than in God, if love is placed in an actor, musician, or other idol rather than the real people in our lives, and if health is placed in pharmaceutical companies, satiation in hamburgers with fries, and contentment in the latest gossip magazine, then where does that leave the essence of our values? I mean, apart from being abused to pieces?
Perhaps this is one of my more cynical posts, but I think there is a real lesson in the conclusion: Consider where your emotions are invested at the moment, which external objects illicit which emotions? This will allow a cleansing process to occur. In the process of identifying lost energies that are intertwined and invested in negative behaviours we are able to loosen their hold over us.
