Like an indecisive cartoon character I carry a homunculus on either shoulder. There’s a devilish fellow on my left who keeps telling me to buy an iPod Touch and an angelic chap on my right who counsels me against such an action. Frankly, I am fed up of being stuck in the middle and have decided to moderate a discussion between the two of them in order to choose once and for all whether or not to buy one.
Let’s start with the argument in favour of buying one.
For: It has long been a desire of mine to have a mobile internet device. As a user of gmail, google calendar, google docs, vitalist, and tiddlyspot, I am well placed to be able to be notionally productive wherever I am in the world, as long as I have access to the internet and a browser. The iPod Touch, with its wifi capability and state of the art safari browser can access all of these sites on its functional 3.5″ screen. As a blogger, I relish the possibility of updating my blog or twitter account when I am out and about. The fact that I can also watch movies and listen to my mp3 collection is a bonus, but one that would make long journeys much more pleasant.
Against: This all sounds very nice, but it isn’t very realistic, is it? Think, where can you actually get free/cheap wifi? In the library, in trains, in cafes, etc. Now, how often do you go to such places? Rarely, if ever, and when you do you’re more likely to want to talk to a friend than squint at a screen. Also, what good is it to be able to check your email? Who ever heard of a really urgent email that couldn’t be safely ignored for a few hours. And have you tried to type on the iPod Touch keyboard? It’s not awful, but isn’t great. Why not just use your notebook and pen like you do at the moment? Much quicker.
I’m not dismissing the iPod Touch, but even if there was greater access to wifi and you could think of a decent use for it, wouldn’t you rather have an iPhone? THe iPhone has a camera, 24/7 access to the internet via the Edge network, offline programs like email and notes, and the killer app, a phone. In comparison, the iPod touch is somewhat inadequate.
For: Slight problem, I’m not really a big phone user and can’t really justify the leap from spending £35 a year on calls to spending £35 a month. Anyhow, isn’t the camera a bit crappy: it doesn’t even have video. The iPod Touch is only £199, it’s thin, sexy and could herald a change in lifestyle. I could become the type of person who sits around in starbucks looking cool! I could become the type of person who watches music videos. I could become a . . .
Against: . . . member of the living dead. Christ! What has got into you? Is this all there is to life, this vulgar hedonism of watching the Ken and Barbie sexuality of music videos, of listening to derivative indie bands with meaningless-but-catchy choruses, of being caught in the web being force fed saccharine tabs of worthless information? Man alive!
For: But it is quite cool, isn’t it.
The above is representative of the dialogues in my head over the past couple of weeks. Countless times I have resolved to buy one before gradually talking myself out of it. I am starting to worry that it is a battle of capitalism taking place within myself.
Indeed, last night I opened Raoul Vaneigem’s Revolution of Everyday Life and read the following passage:
As we know, the consumption of goods — which comes down always, in the present state of things, to the consumption of power — carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction and the conditions of its own transcendence. The consumer cannot and must not ever attain satisfaction: the logic of the consumable object demands the creation of fresh needs, yet the accumulation of such false needs exacerbates the malaise of men confined with increasing difficulty solely to the state of consumers. Furthermore, the wealth of consumer goods impoverishes authentic life. It does so in two ways. First, it replaces authentic life with things. Secondly, it makes it impossible, with the best will in the world, to become attached to these things, precisely because they have to be consumed, ie, destroyed. Whence, an absence of life which is ever more frustrating, a self-devouring dissatisfaction.
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I know how you feel.
I feel guilty if I buy things and stupid if I don’t- i.e. get home from the shop and think, you total wimp. I think the term is buyers remorse. Gadgets are a particular challenge. I can talk myself out of buying almost anything when I think about it too much.
Decision making on things like this probably will not make the slightest difference one way or another to your life. I suspect the best thing is to go shopping after a pint or two. Possibly.
There must be a third way that doesn’t involve becoming a monk.
‘Stuff’ is seldom satisfying - as unsatisfactory as this maxim is. This is the thin strand of wisdom I cling to when ‘not buying it’ Judith Levine-style.
But the fact remains that I am wholly seduced by the idea of 24/7 portable internet. I get off on the idea of information flowing around and being able to manipulate and control it fluidly. A handheld device would be the ultimate gadget in enabling me to do that.
But it’s all fairly pointless at the end of the day. At best it’s a harmless frivolity - at worst, well, let us no dwell on that!