Fred Vogelstein, “And then Steve Said, “Let There Be an iPhone”
This essay is based on the discussion of the benefits and losses the advances in modern technology have given us in the past two or three decades. Mainly keeping in focus the time of the twenty-first century, technology has amazed mankind all over the globe with its new wonders. Now, it is completely impossible to consider life without all the technology and science around us. However, everything that exists in this world has a lot of benefits, with more or fewer losses or disadvantages.
There is nothing in this world that does not have a dark side. This statement fits everything, living or non-living, in this world. Examples of this can be enormous, but let us exemplify the things that have become essential in today’s people’s lives. That thing or wonder of modern science and technology is none other than Google itself. No work can be done without the help of Google. Whether it is about finding any word’s meaning, looking up a cooking recipe, searching the history, or completing one’s research work, Google’s help is required.
Nicholas Carr has, however, described one of the significant sides of excessive use and dependency of the modern world on Google. The point is that this availability of enormous information and knowledge has gradually settled and adjusted our brains to the fact that we do not have to remember anything for a long period of time. We do have Google on our backs that can help us at any place and at any time. This fact, in our subconscious, has not only made us super-dependent on this modern technology but also has affected our core of mind-controlling attention, concentration, and memory.
Corr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” talks about Clive Thompson’s statement that “the internet can be an enormous boon to thinking.” But that boon comes at a price. This price is our rhythm of concentration, attention, and ability to memorize important information. The author (Corr) also directs this thought to the admitted fact by Friedman, a pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, that “I have lost the ability to do that (reading). Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it”.
This statement explains the situation and the whole discussion pretty well. It now becomes extremely difficult to focus and pay attention to anything related to information and knowledge for a longer period of time. Not only Google but also smartphones, including both Apple and Android, have played major and significant roles in this regard. As Fred Vogelstein said in his article, “And then Steve Said, “Let There Be an iPhone,” about what has happened during the journey of exploring the world of technology and spreading it to the world in the form of iPhones and then Android phones.
Vogelstein makes a reference to the story of Grignon, the senior engineer at Apple, who explained the whole thing that happened when Steve decided to launch the iPhone. He explained how Steve Jobs never felt guilty of any mistake and used to behave at mistakes by saying, “It felt like we had gone through the demo a hundred times and each time something went wrong. It was not a good feeling”. However, the main thing at the core of the discussion was how the iPhone and Android, after some time, took over the whole world of technology and gradually imprisoned the minds of their users. Now, no adult person working, educating, or even staying at home can imagine a so-called ‘normal life’ without Google, smartphones, and other major technology and scientific wonders.
