Watching Steve Jobs' so-called "keynote meltdown," I could understand the guy's frustration, because no one likes to look foolish in public, and regardless of whether it was his fault that the WiFi was hopelessly overloaded, he's Mr. Big -- and expected to be some sort of magician. So even though what happened to him would have happened to anyone in the same position, the audience thought it was hilarious, and he became the butt of a joke.
Being a techie, though, he could never have gotten away with a line like the one Barack Obama delivered here in Ann Arbor:
...in an era of iPods and Tivo, where we have more choices than ever before -- even though I can't really work a lot of these things -- (laughter) -- but I have 23-year-olds who do it for me -- (laughter) -- government shouldn't try to dictate your lives.
Nice to know that the president said that -- even though he has appointed hordes of people who have dedicated their lives to dictating our lives.
But what really caught my attention more than Steve Jobs' "meltdown" was a passing remark he made when he was demonstrating his new improved gadget, and boasting about the quality of the picture -- "you can really see it around the eyes and teeth" -- and finally
it comes down to what do you want to be looking at all day long?
While I don't know exactly what I want to be looking at all day long, I know what I don't want to be looking at all day long -- and that is a video screen. Whether huge, tiny, fuzzy, or clear.
As it is I spend a lot of time looking at words, but one of the things that attracted me to this medium was my hatred of television. Part of that is grounded in not liking programming, and while I realize that Jobs is not talking about programming but communication, I don't want to be communicating all day long either. Around here, that would seem to place me in a minority:
Here in the heavy student areas of Ann Arbor, I've noticed that some young people are incapable of even walking safely while using their phones. I have had them walk right in front of me, eyes riveted to tiny screens while I slam on the brakes to avoid hitting them.
A tiny screen here, a big screen there, and pretty soon we're talking about an omnipresent screen. If the government made people have them everywhere, and they were called "The Telescreen," we would hate and fear them. Instead, people are standing in line to buy them, complaining when they don't work, and thinking it's quite reasonable to be looking at them all day long.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not a Luddite. In fact, I'm on a screen right now, looking at these words appear as I type them. (In Fedora, which is a nice distraction....) But as Groucho Marx famously never said, "I smoke a cigar, but I take it out of my mouth occasionally."
It's Farenheit 451. The screens are always there, talking.
And I thought I was the only "freak of nature" who didn't like TV. My dad used to introduce me to people that way "This is my daughter. She doesn't like television." That's right -- see the three headed calf, the world's largest ball of yarn and the girl who doesn't like TV!
Sarah · June 9, 2010 2:21 PM
The consensus is settled.
You don't want to disagree with the consensus, do you?
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
Mmm...Camels.
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