Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Fuckin' Ugh...



While I like this ad, think it's well made and funny, and think most of us can relate to it (as both the phone users and the people annoyed with the phone users), I really hate when tech companies take this angle. As I recall Prodigy or Compuserve did the same thing back in the dot com craze with some line like, "Log on, get your stuff, log off, and get on with your life".

To me it really shows a lack of understanding about how technology is changing our very wiring. To not only push against that change, but to present our obsession with tech and the ease with which so many of us get lost within it as a bad/wrong/weird thing just seems out of touch at best and intentionally dishonest at worst.

The reality is many people- for whatever reason- DO want to look at their phones and text and get mail INSTEAD of interfacing with the outside world. Stop being such old fashioned snobs and just embrace that fact. Fuck, you want to do something innovative and cool, get to work on a product that lets us dive deeper into the matrix without running the risk of bodily harm as we are walking around the real world (heads up displays for glasses and contacts lenses...stuff like that....Apple should come out with the ieye :)...).

But this just reeks of one of those 'don't be a geek all lost in your phone and your tech but be cool instead' messages that I just hate.

David

12 comments:

Barkeep said...

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft and their products, however, they do make a very good point with this ad.

It displays perfectly how we function as a technological society.

Sure, the old fashioned of this great nation needs to embrace the fact that technology is here to stay, but some of us take it a little too far.

It's a sad world we live in if interaction is met only through computer monitors, or in this case, cell phone features such as texting.

On the other hand one might perceive it by saying: "Shut up Microsoft and give me what I want, instead of telling me how to live my life."

David Jaffe said...

I simply feel that if humans are naturally becoming obsessed and lost in their tech that perhaps we need to look at that as an evolutionary thing versus a bad thing.

What exactly is bad about it? If more and more people prefer to stare into a computer monitor instead of interface with the 'real world', then so be it. This is no different than religion. The world can be a scary, uncertain, cold place. Living 'inside' tech gives you a sense of control that you don't have in the real world, just as- for many- believing that God has a master plan and will take care of you, brings comfort and a sense of peace.

I think it's natural and healthy for humans to gravitate towards things they feel control over as it brings peace and calm. This is why- I feel-tech is so addictive.

David

Unknown said...

Well, there is nothing bad about it when you look at it from that perspective, but should humans really limit their interactions with others? Say in the near future, if people really do conduct all their business through technology without meeting people outdoors, won't people become introverted when they meet other people? Or won't we suffer from the inevitable inactivity ala Wall-E?

On another note, I don't want to spam your comment board with something completely unrelated, and I apologize in advance, but I thought I might introduce you to,if you haven't come across him already, whom I believe is one of the most inspiring rappers rapping today...

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKTl2s5oDY&feature=related

Barkeep said...

You see this is the result of the lack of sociable interactions within the realm of reality which is stifling our community at large through technology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0VOVuxiahk&feature=player_embedded#!

I only jest. Figured this will get at least a chuckle.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with the Jaffe on this one. There's a choking, pungent stench of cynicism in much of marketing. Almost as though it's a rule that a company must insult a different type of person, or the very type of person in their target demographic.

I can't say much about people's tech-involved lives as I'm really not one of them, but the sheer audacity to caricature people who do like consumer tech, as much as caricaturing any other person for some marketing ploy, is disgusting.

I recently read a point on some obscure message board someone made about "GTA: San Andreas" (Or any in the series, for that matter) that really does apply: A lot of the jokes on the radios and some of the fictional ads actually directly and unabashedly insult the players, themselves, by caricaturing anybody who's remotely a 'consumer'. Seems kind of counter-intuitive considering the product and its desired target.

I do have one side gripe about a lot of media that actually quite infuriates me. Here, you may call me high-minded or whatever, but as a listener of classical music and someone who actually vaguely 'gets' it (Note vaguely), I a, bothered by the use of classical music in ridiculous tv, movie, and commercial ad scenarios. Whether we realize it or not, that really does ruin an entire song in a person's head. After having heard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (The song used)so many times in similar instances growing up, it took me many many listen-throughs to start to grasp the true majesty of the piece without picturing some ridiculous, exaggerated scenario of human folly in my head.

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