My sister-in-law called today to ask
me to look for a phone for my niece.
She mentioned it a while ago and at
that point, anything was fine, as long
as it made calls and texts. The niece
was not to have a data plan, so it
seemed like I could find a new phone
for a reasonable price quite easily.
But today, the criteria were
different. My niece *needs* an iPhone,
because if she doesn't have one,
she'll be excluded from her friends'
group chats. She also *needs* data so
she can look up bus schedules. So I
looked up the price of a new iPhone
and nearly iVomited. I believe my
sister-in-law was a little taken aback
as well. I could hear a slight gasp on
the other end of the line.
Later, I went on eBay and found that
you can get a used iPhone SE for a
little over $100. I suspect that the
SE won't get the next iOS update, but
it should be useful for as long as it
will last in the hands of a young
girl (everywhere I look, people are
making do with cracked screens....)
But the thing that really hit me was
that the iPhone (and especially
iMessage) had become the defining
mechanism of social cliques. Without
an iPhone, my niece would be an
outsider. If I wasn't around,
searching eBay for a phone, my
sister-in-law probably would have just
bit the bullet and paid for a phone
she really couldn't afford, just to
make sure her kid wasn't ostracized.
I think -- but I don't know because I
don't have kids -- this would have
been one of those points where I would
have just said, "we're not doing
that." I was raised by quite
old-school parents (and an even
older-school grandma) and they
wouldn't have batted an eye in
refusing to pay for such a thing. I
know, though, that many people must be
caving in and it bothers me.
I think that might be why I'm such a
fan of retro-tech. I love getting as
much out of old things as possible. I
also like simplicity and hate waste
(Grandma went through the Great
Depression and we saved *all* the damn
leftovers). I think it's because of
that mentality that I've kept old cars
on the road, repaired old cell phones
for fun, fixed up an old house, and
I'm typing this on a ThinkPad R500
that's been upgraded almost as far as
is possible.
Sometimes I think that the people who
buy everything up to the limits of
their credit are the smart ones. You
know? You only live once and the
creditors can't collect once you're
dead. Meanwhile, you get to consume to
your heart's content and be in the
in-crowd. But I know that I could
never live like that. I don't like
how it feels.
In any case, while I know that old
will rarely be cool among the general
public, at least in the gopherverse my
clique (are we that?) shares an
appreciation for simplicity, re-use,
and repair, which is nice.
* * *
You're making me think a lot,
phloggers. Among the pieces that I've
really enjoyed lately are Yargo's
piece on digital minimalism and
dgold's "We Have Always Been at War"
(I really need to find another Orwell
work to read) and "Reformed Rational
Calendar." I think the extra summer
half-month *has* to be called
"Thermidor". There's no other
historically responsible choice!
* * *
A news tidbt that might be of
interest: the NY Public Library has
discovered that the copyright to a
great number of books published prior
to 1964 has expired. You may find a
lot more books available through
Project Gutenberg and other sites
shortly.
Source:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kz4e3e/millions-of-books-are-secretly-in-the-public-domain-you-can-download-them-free
