I just want to take a minute and share a random thought I had on cell phones. Amazing things. Sci-Fi movies in real life. What can’t these things do these days? Though it wasn’t all that long ago we were as equally terrified of them as we were fascinated.
Yes, these are really phones I’ve had over the years and recently found in a box.
How many people do you or did you know that wouldn’t put their phone to their head for fear of getting cancer? It’d take them the length of a whole conversation just to get that damn little earpiece in and actually talk to you after answering the call. Sure, there were studies going on about the dangers, just about as many saying there were no dangers, but isn’t that always the case.
Then somewhere along the line, the cool-shit-o-meter went high enough everyone shut up about health concerns. I don’t remember anything definitively debunking all the cancer and brain tumor hysteria. All I know is everyone just started shouting they need a new iPhone.
And now we’ve got a ton a shit, don’t we: iPhones, iPads, 30,000 different Android phones. Window’s even jumped into the market, but they’re going the route of their Zune. Remember that fucking thing? No? That’s OK nobody else does either.
Now it’s gone far beyond forgetting the yelling and screaming about how cell phones will kill us all. Now we need them for our health. From giving us cancer to needing them for our health. As if we didn’t have a million reasons to be addicted to our phones and keep them on us every second of every day already.
We’ve got to have them to keep track of every little thing we do. If we don’t have it on us at all times the damn health app won’t know how many steps I’ve taken or stairs I’ve climbed. It won’t track my mileage and monitor my caloric intake vs. burn.
If I leave my phone on the table or in the car, or on the couch next to me…then it just looks like I’m a lazy shit who didn’t do anything all day.
Take your pulse, log your food—there’s this app, that app, and phones are even coming preloaded with some health app that can even give an enema. Well, maybe not yet—but you can see it right? All those little green aliens must be probing their abductees for a reason. It’s only a matter of time before Apple sees the opportunity. Brings a whole new meaning to the old “an apple a day” adage.
I was never one to worry too much about phones and their health risks. As a kid they were always fucking awesome. I remember my family’s first cell phone—it was this huge thing connected by a cord to a phone book sized battery pack that was so heavy it came with a shoulder strap. Look where they’ve advanced to from there. I just find the reversal in attitude and general tone surrounding them astounding.
Maybe that’s the key to all our societal issues: blind us with something so cool we just gotta have it, and we’ll forget about everything else.
And now for my tour de force… a low-light picture of my iPhone taken with my iPad.
Please keep visiting/reading for new images and write-ups, as well as photography techniques and tips, and the occasional random string of thought from Benjamin Ginsberg and Driftwood Photography Studios. Also be sure to follow on Instagram/Twitter at @DriftwoodFoto.