An Irony of Sorts.

People oft think I am joking when I say, "technology is the devil." I could not be more serious when I utter those words. Now, this is a bit of a duality because I am a software developer. My problem with technology mostly stems from how people use it. I am in fact a huge fan of new and inventive technology, but I question how much of it is useful. I am the first to admit that my iPod and I are in a torrid love affair, but what I absolutely can not stand is the whole cult of personality that goes with the iPod. Lets be clear, the iPod is not necessarily a better device then most other mp3 players (in fact there are about 4 things I can not stand about it). The things that makes the iPod so successful are that it was first and that it was able to develope a huge cult of personality behind it. Now that cult of personality has led to some truly inventive occurrences. I bought mine solely b/c it has far and away the best car integration scheme going. However b/c of the iPod's cult of personality status, it gets tons credit it does not deserve.

Contrary to popular belief, you are no more or less artistic and creative if you use Apple products. Apple inc. is a solid company who make fine products, but they are also egregious liars. Their entire Mac vs PC add campaign is simply untrue in most cases. This is dangerous. Not in a, "HOLY SHIT IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!", kind of way, but in a how responsible is it for a large international corporation to spread patent (and in some cases baseless) lies?

The other issue with technology is a far more personal issue. I have increasingly found myself in conversations with people who tell me about some theory they read about T.V. show X on some Internerd site. Now, I have no problems with the idea of cyber communities, but what I don't like is how they can often taint shows. Often times writers get sucked into reading these chat rooms to see what the "average" person thinks about their show. Well I got news for you, these people are not "average" by any definition. Then writers start trying to cater to these people and often times lose what was good about the show in the first place. Coughtheoccough. Also these groups tend to be inhabited by the most reactionary people on the planet. One bad episode? Your shows jumped the shark. Odds are the episode wasn't even that bad, but everyone wants to be the first person who realized that show X jumped the shark. I will never understand this impulse (odds are it has something to do with a decline in western civilization, but that's a different blog) as long as I live.

The other wonderful joy this whole Internet and T.V. revolution has brought us is web content actually made by the show. Lost is a prime example of this. I enjoy how Lost has done this, but I fear the precedent. With Lost you can completely ignore the web content and be no worse for wear. However I see a day in the not to distant future where to watch a T.V. show, you will be forced to surf the Internerd for hours on end in order to keep up with the latest episode of Over the Top Teen Docudrama X. I find this to be an extremely tiring and depressing idea.