(As I said in my first post here, I will occasionally post old articles I did for something other than this blog. This article, one of my favorites, was written on April 23, 2007, for the Monthly Growl, Vol. 1, Issue 3.)
I bet you’ve seen the new Verizon commercial with the girl who texts too much. If you haven’t, here’s a transcript:
Mom: Honey, come here!!
Daughter: W.A.u? (What’s up?)
Mom: Have you seen these phone bills?
Daughter: OMG, INBD! (Oh my gosh, it’s no big deal!)
Mom: It is a big deal!! Who are you calling to get a big phone bill like this!?!?!?!
Daughter: IDK, My BFF Jill? (I don't know, my best friend Jill?)
Mom: Well, tell your BFF Jill I'm taking your phone away.
*daughter hands the phone*
Daughter: TISNF!! (This is so not fair!!)
Mom: This phone bill! That’s what’s S… 10… F!
This commercial is, of course, a parody of a scene that I’m sure repeats itself in homes all across America. About half of teens own cell phones, and most of them text frequently. However, phones are just part of what’s changing the entire world. We are in the middle of a time with technology to help every part of our lives. Welcome to the iRevolution.
The iRevolution is the term I use to refer to all of the technology that has developed over the last 15 years, or, basically, since just before most of us were born. In 1992, the DVD was an idea in the mind of some technicians and inventors, MP3 players were brand new, CDs were finally more common than records and cassettes, cellular phones were those big brick-shaped things rich people carried around to look cool, the whole internet had 50 websites (all for Government use), and (gasp!) MySpace had not yet been invented. Now, just look around! We’re talking to people wherever we go (if we aren’t texting), there are more websites than people in the world (I myself have two or three), I haven’t seen a VHS tape since 2002, I never go a day without hearing someone say WTF, OMG, LOL, or ROFL, and I am the only person in America without at least three blogs, a Zanga (or whatever), and two MySpace pages.
I still know more than a lot of adults do about this new technology. Many adults, specifically parents of teens, are feeling increasingly left behind in a world of “S-10-F”. Being iNtelligent is still not absolutely vital to a lot of adults, but that’s changing quickly. Even the most trivial jobs will soon require knowledge of computers, except for the ones that computers will soon take over. Those will simply require new technicians. Despite all that, however, many parents are still left in the dark about this new world of the iRevolution. I’m sure your parents have asked you to fix the computer several times in the past month.
The old world of snail mail is dying out. The iRevolution is taking over the world. I think that Lev Grossman said it best in TIME Magazine’s April 30, 2007 issue: “Just about everybody in both the entertainment and the technology worlds believes that it is the fate of all media to shed their analog past and transubstantiate into pure data. Newspapers are becoming websites, photos are becoming JPEGs, and songs are becoming MP3s.” By this he means what I’ve been trying to say: the iRevolution is here, and you’re going to love it.
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5 comments:
This isn't SNF.
THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
??? I have no idea what fizz meant.
I liked the article. Although I'd like to add that I myself only have 1 blog and 1 (never used) myspace page. So there.
Want to know what the sad part of the iRevolution is? There are a scary amount of people who are able to understand all the stuff in that commercial...
I was actually making a joke about that commercial. I think it was like, Cingular. I don't know.
You're right, Fizz. It was a Cingular commercial. My mistake.
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