When I saw the film ‘Her’ I thought then about how we use Facebook, What’sApp, email, and so on. We used to share short messages on postcards when we were on holiday or by three rings to say we’ve arrived safely, for example. Now we share all manner of trivia, political opinions, recipes, photographs, and random thoughts. We don’t have an Operating System like Theodore in the film. Instead, our Operating System is a composite of communications and responses from friends, acquaintances and even complete strangers. None of this amounts to control over what we think or do.
At least, not necessarily. Fashions and crazes, like the present craze for Pokemon Go, are entered into more or less willingly. Weaker (?) people may feel pressured. Some people feel the need to be aware of the zeigeist and become part of it. There are as many reasons for taking part in the various waves of fashion as there are people.
But… all this fashion and fashionable technology (I don’t mean washing machines and the like), comes at a cost, like recreational drugs. The means of production, in sweat shops, exploitative factories, poor farmers, is invisible at the point of sale. Take the Apple advert, for example, as recommended by Gareth Dent. There is no hint of where Apple actually makes its products apart from the vaguely Asian look of the girl.
The child looks similar to my three year old grandchild who is unaware of the wider world, a picture of innocence.
The pseudo poem in the advert exploits innocence in an attempt to build meaning into an otherwise meaningless advertising blurb. This presentation of innocence enlightened by this product papers over the cracks in what the product actually means to its users, makers and designers. The advertiser’s narrative represents a lifestyle choice but when we leave children to their own devices, we don’t mean this.
Chris Whittle 