Most people might think that the “i” in i-Phone refers to the Internet. And they’d be right. The i is a small case one, after all, and surely that refers to the internet. If it referred to you, then it would be a capital I, right?
But of course this brings us to the ingenuity of the late Apple guru, Steve Jobs, for with that little “i” he was doing a number on us. The truth is that your smart phone or mine really is your phone or my phone. My phone isn’t the same as your phone any more than you are I or l am you. These are not called personal devices for nothing.
So the “i” stands for the internet, but it also stands for the personal I, as in you or me. This is what makes personal computers and smart phones and tablets profoundly different from the telephone or television. Nobody watches Breaking Bad or Downton Abbey on his or her television. They watch this stuff on the television. And nobody has a personal telephone wired to the wall.
Of course we often see the same things on our personal devices. I can go to yahoo and see the same thing you do. That’s collective, not personal. Ah, but I don’t see what’s on yahoo the same way you do, and my device is better than your device, and I will surf stuff on yahoo that you won’t.
Steve Jobs understood that, at bottom, we are all interested in our selves more than we care about anyone else. It’s said that he knew what we wanted before we did. And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my I-Phone. You’re on your own.
I’m Tom McBride, and that’s my Perspective.
