gadgets and technology are the new snobbery. according to a hilarious column by David Brooks from 08.08.08, what matters today is the buzz for the latest gadget or social networking site, where you download your music and what fancy new wireless headphones you have (he mentioned some finnish ones, but i don't know those). by the time things are in with the masses, you, to retain elite status, should have already moved on to the next obscure new wonder.
MySpace is out, Facebook is in. Gmail is where you should get your mail, definitely not AOL and hotmail is soooo over. Plaxo is beginning to surpass LinkedIn, but although i joined, i'm unwilling to really move over there yet. Apparently there's a new site for music--Pitchfork, tho' i'm still using Limewire. the coolness that is Nintendo DS is kicking the Sony PSP's patootie, as is the Wii vs. PS3. i can see that Wordpress is gaining on Typepad, tho' i'll admit i'm quite content here on blogger.
one simply must have an iPhone (preferably the new 3G, since the first gen is so over) and at least one iPod. Apple has definitely been on the forefront of this new rule of design as a mark of snobbery and Brooks says that June 29, 2007, the date of the release of the first iPhone was the shift--that's the day that "the means of transmission replaced the content of culture as the center of historical excitement and as the marker of social status."
in myself, i can see that it even goes down to the level of what little bag to put your gadget in...it must be a crumpler, but a golla (that's finnish) is also hottie, anything else (including the belkin that i have for my Touch) is distinctly nottie.
i have bose earbuds and never use those white ones that came with my iPod, tho' i can see that those white earbuds are themselves a mark of hipness because i've seen people using them who don't actually HAVE an iPod. but, of course, i fancy myself as far too cool for that. because part of this whole phenomenon as Brooks describes it is that you have to not only be "an early adopter, but an early discarder." i will definitely not be discarding my iPhone or my many iPods anytime soon and for now, i'm staying on LinkedIn.
p.s. don't you love that fabric under my iPhone & crumpler? it's called "jarrinha" and it's by globaltex.i'm using it for curtains.
3 comments:
I'm a big tech nobody! LOL I still have a Razr phone and a 2nd gen nano (8 gig)! I find technology exciting, but I rarely partake right away. I will get an Amazon Kindle when the 2nd gen comes out, though!
hi andi--i do think that it's time to ditch the razr, but they were never cool in Europe, so that may just be me. :-) heehee. you're quite hip with the 2G nano--i think any iPod is good, you don't have to have the latest one of those and having an early one is a mark of being early adopter, so you're cool there. i actually wish we still had our 1st gen Nano--it was beautiful, but husband left it on a plane, which is what pretty much started the avalanche of other iPods into our life.
I have the first generation iPhone and I have mixed feelings about it, but I still love it. The Boy recently got the new iPhone and occasionally I hear him cursing it. There is never a perfect piece of technology, and we are all willing guinea pigs while the bugs get worked out.
I refuse to get any more networked than I already am (ie, facebook, etc.) because I seriously can't keep up. I wonder how everyone else does it. And twitter? That one seems really over the top.
And yes, that is a very attractive photo. But you have not made a button for your blog so you can read yourself on the road! ;-)
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