Like babies, iphones are gradually developing. Its not alarming to us now that our iphone "listens" and responds to our touch and voices. In fact, we are proud of the iphone! Did it just say what I think it did?! is our delight when we first engage with our upgrades. We giggle at its awkward voice, its answers (amazing if its right, endearing or frustrating if its wrong-- just like any infant). We are proud, because we love our iphones (link). I won't put quotations around love, because it does not need any qualification and it isn't ironic.
Also like babies, we have certain mysterious origin stories for iphones. The stork, or God, is responsible for children, and in a parallel formulation, Steve Jobs brings us iphones. God is dead, and humans are free to be and become. Jobs is dead. What will our devices become?
If we can flip the word addiction and the word love when we talk about our iphones, we can flip the word love with the word addiction when we talk about our babies.
ReplyDelete"You are totally addicted to your baby"
Is addiction deployed in our sentences only when the thing we are attached to is an object rather than a person, or is it used only if the thing we are attached to is perceived as negative? Or are all objects generalized as negative? And what about that thing I read one time that said all our relationships with persons, especially healthy/successful sexual relationships, the persons are treated objectively and subjectively.
and what is OOO about?
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