| #daily app |
Jun. 21st, 2017|01:13 pm |
the purpose of ideas is to fill every moment with computational engagement.
when i wrote about the iphone shortly after its launch, i called it the geek’s chihuahua: a glass-and-metal companion that people could hold, stroke, and pet—a toy dog for the tech set.
i dubbed the device the cigarette of this century: a source of obsessive attention that, like smoking, brings people together in a shared dependency whose indulgence also produces the calming relief of new data.
it therefore doesn’t make sense to talk about the meaning of cigarettes or chihuahuas. their meaning is the pattern of their use. and when it comes to smartphones, seeing and touching them is far more important than processing the meaning they deliver.
“i don’t even want that level of cognitive engagement with anything,” explains the creator of binky, “but i feel like i ought to be looking at my phone, like it’s my default state of being.” |
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