Younger Generations Jump on the iPhone Bandwagon
iPhones are everywhere. They rest on our kitchen counters while we make breakfast. They hold our attention as we utilize them throughout the day, until we have no use for them anymore, and bury them inside our backpacks or slip them into our pockets. They walk the halls right here in Shaker Heights High School, in the hands of students. And after a hard day’s work, they settle in next to us on our nightstand and get a good night’s sleep. However, we never thought we’d see the day when little kids came skipping out of elementary school with backpacks on their backs and iPhones in their hands.
This phenomenon first swept the nation when the first iPhone ever was released in June 2007. Apple sold 6.1 million first generation iPhones by 2008, which surpassed BlackBerry’s sales of 5.2 million. But it didn’t stop there. By 2011, Apple had sold more than 72 million iPhones around the world. The iPhone movement was gaining momentum, and fast.
With each new model, new features were added, alluring more and more consumers with every upgrade. High schoolers in particular were amazed with the tempting technology of the iPhone.
Sophomore Margi Weiss has noticed the craze, and has her own theory as to why our generation has become so iPhone dependent.
“Everyone’s obsessed because it’s a constant communication with everyone else. In our generation, if you have to tell someone something, you need to do it immediately,” Weiss said. “So everyone’s always on their phones because everyone else is. It’s kind of a chain reaction, like the domino effect.”
And now it’s our worst nightmare: the secret has been found out. Kids in the lower schools have begun using iPhones as well. Some parents devised the excuse that it’s more of a precaution for them to ensure their child’s safety, but it’s getting a bit out of hand, don’t you think?
Sophomore Maggie Cullina agrees and says that although she isn’t too upset about not having an iPhone herself, she doesn’t like the fact that younger generations have them.
“I think it’s kind of ridiculous,” Cullina said. “I mean, if they have iPod touches and stuff it’s fine, but just the fact that they have access to the Internet all the time I think is just not a great way to grow up.”
We all remember the days when barely anyone had cell phones, and if they did, it was almost always a cheap flip phone. Smartphones? Forget it. Those were reserved for tech-savvy adults only. Of course, once we all reached that fateful day of upgrade, we received a phone with a slide out keyboard or, if we were lucky, maybe even a touch screen. Thus, the phone obsession of our generation commenced.
Now it may seem that the generation beneath us is far ahead of their time—a little too ahead if you ask me—but in reality we went through the exact same craze (well, except for the fact that the equivalent to their iPhone 5 was our “Envy 3”).
Nevertheless, as much as we may resent them for it, this technology fixation and need to feel mature is simply history’s ironic way of repeating itself. It happened to their generation, just as it did to us, and it probably will for many more years to come.
