If Thy Smartphone Offends Thee - Intercollegiate Studies Institute

If Thy Smartphone Offends Thee

I battle with my iPhone every day. I sit at dinner wondering what people are arguing about on Twitter, and when I step onto an elevator or metro car I don’t face the loneliness and isolation one feels even when surrounded by so many people. I instead pull out my phone, despite the lack of connectivity underground, and sit in silence like all the other drones.

This is the phenomenon Louis C.K. criticized so effectively in his now viral interview. His message resonated with me even more since I have come to hate iOS7. It is a cold, unfeeling design that is completely devoid of character. Gone are the depictions of real calendars and notepads. It does not present itself as something familiar and human that is rooted in this world, but instead it paints a picture of a world to come. My detestation of this brave new world has made it easier to put my phone back in my pocket when I sit down on the metro. I’ve come to realize that for this much I should be grateful.

Roger Scruton has said, “Beauty is vanishing from our world because we live as though it did not matter; and we live that way because we have lost the habit of sacrifice and are striving always to avoid it.” Sacrifice – that seems to be the key word. As Louis CK said, in so many words, missing out on the Beautiful does not matter so long as our phones continue to obscure the tragic.

The sacrifice required to confront our loneliness and humanity seems too great to bear. It’s as though we are discussing more than a mere machine. Indeed, the developers designed it to become “more to you than just a device.” Something more like a third hand. The sacrifice of something that has become so integrated with our being seems outrageous, yet it may very well be the sacrifice needed to rediscover a world of Beauty. After all, He who made the greatest sacrifice has said what must be done if thy hand offends thee.

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