Technology
Why the New Apple Products Have Me Worried
Too much tech isn’t always a good thing.
The latest Apple Spring 2021 event is loaded with one-of-a-kind gems such as the AirTag, and the iPhone 12 in Purple (oddly specific but ok). I waited for this event as I do with the yearly Apple events. I wanted my mind to be BLOWN. I wanted to be able to say “WHOAAA”, “WHAT THE…..”, “HOW DID THEY…..”. And normally every year I would say those things and yes my mind would indeed be blown #Blownemoji. However, this Apple Spring 2021 event was different. I saw a side of Apple I never knew existed. You know like your best friend you’ve grown up with since kindergarten only to realize you never noticed that she swallows the orange seeds when eating oranges. What captured my attention most about this Spring event wasn’t all the technical details like the new M1 chip (Yes the chip is now in the new Ipad Pro) or the Centre Stage feature. No. My attention was focused on the type of consumer and generation that Apple was grooming with its cult following.
Living in Asia, Apple products are by no means affordable. They are pricey and mostly out of reach for most of the general public. So far, when we think of Apple products we immediately think of security and speed. I’m beginning to think that it should now be known for one other thing. Self-loving and lack of empathy.
I’ve worked with many people across my career in the public, private, and even startup sector. Looking back, all the people I know who use Apple products belong to a certain demographic and certain social status. But what I’m really zoning in on now is how most of them are some of the most selfish, self-centered non-empathetic people I’ve ever met. Whether they were older than me or younger than me. They all had one thing in common. They only cared about themselves. I don’t mean to generalize but with all the comfort, speed, and ease that Apple has brought through its products, it has managed to breed the “Must have it now” mentality. And along with that, the “I’m too important to care or do anything I don’t want to do”.
It’s as if buying an Apple product is the key to success. Like arriving in a Lamborghini to your high school reunion. People who buy Apple products want the same respect given to them for having said products as if they have put in the work needed to earn those products. Let me clarify. Several years ago, I had a junior team member. Now for anyone who has ever needed to take notes in a meeting, it’s often easier to take notes with pen and paper, rather than lugging around a laptop hoping there would be a charger near the desk you’re sitting at and then type away. Me and a junior team member had to go see a client at their office. I took a notepad and a pen, and the junior team member, of course, had to take her Macbook which she hugged like a newborn baby.
When we arrived at the client’s office, there was no power outlets or power bars insight and soon enough, her Macbook died. She then became absolutely useless and obsolete like last night’s nachos without the salsa. She sat there, doing absolutely nothing except smiling and occasionally nodding. I, on the other hand, took notes of the key points in the meeting for my own reference. What she did next was something I remember until this day. She came up to my desk when we were back at the office and said “Ms, can I borrow your notes, I couldn’t take any coz my laptop died”. Despite she was one of my junior staff, I was a new hire in the company and didn’t want to be called the “B” word, so I shared my notes with her. But that mentality of “Oh there’s no power socket and my laptop died, so that’s that, too bad” is something that has been branded in my head to this day. When I was starting out in my career, I would have been fired for simply taking too long to get out the door with my boss. I thought this was a unique event of someone who just didn’t perform well. However, throughout the years, I’ve noticed that people who carry their Macbooks around like their newborn, often don’t pay attention to details. They just assumed that the Macbook was like a badge of honor implying “Hey, I have a Macbook so I don’t really need to work”
For the new April Spring 2021 event, let’s look at Apple’s latest invention, the AirTag, sure it’s great to keep track of your luggage so you won’t lose it, but that’s not the point. Think of the big picture of what the AirTag symbolizes and re-read the previous sentence once again. It says to keep track of YOUR luggage. As in your individual luggage. I grew up during an era where the most tech anyone used was Microsoft word and excel. No kidding, offices had computers for that sole purpose. So people can type documents and crunch numbers. What do you think happens when people of my generation went on vacation or a business trip? We had a piece of luggage tag tied to our luggage with our name and contact number in case it ever got lost. But that’s about it. If the airline loses your luggage, that’s it, it got lost.
This incident of lost luggage isn’t just about the luggage. Through this incident, my generation learned how to let go of things, we learned that some things are beyond our control, it’s called fate, human error and really, we should just accept it rather than being dragged into the hell known as Airline customer service red tape. We also learned an important lesson: that we should’ve never packed our favorite items into a check-in baggage. Everyone knows the rule of thumb of check-in baggage. If you can’t bear to lose it, don’t pack it. This is where we were taught to look out for our own well-being by being vigilant, alert, and calculating. We NEVER pack any precious belongings to check-in baggage. Our hand carry had to be glued to us and checked and rechecked every single minute as if it was one of our children. If you’re sitting in a crowded airport, your hand-carry has to be on your lap or at the seat right next to you while it was looped around your arm. We were taught to be vigilant, aware, and constantly on the lookout.
AirTags are great for people of a certain generation who have come up with that old-school training and who are having a hard time keeping track of making dinner, juggling two kids and a pet, and could now use a hand making sure everything can be easily found. They should not be a replacement of common sense and be used to justify not paying attention to your luggage. Which is what Apple has highlighted in their spring event. Don’t worry about keeping track of anything, we have a device for that. Throw caution to the wind and rely on the AirTag. Is this really the right message Apple should be conveying to its millions of viewers? Why didn’t they instead showed a tourist whose bag got snatched while she was overseas and managed to recover it thanks to the AirTag. You know, the way Visa / Mastercard has those overnight replacement card commercials to show you that when life happens, you can depend on them? That would have made more sense and would have probably driven up more sales than the ad of the guy losing his keys between his sofa cushions and Apple AirTag helped him find his keys.
Apple is doing many things in terms of education, such as the Apple Academy, to prepare for future engineers and developers. But what I don’t see them doing is being responsible for enabling lack of empathy and selfishness in the world which is what a majority of their products have done.
If you’re asking yourself “But how is this related to the world?”, walk with me for a minute. There are two types of people who buy Apple products. The first are the kind who actually needs them for work, such as writers, content creators, engineers, anyone who depends on speed and has a high workload. And then there are what I call the “Wanna be Busy Bees”. Yup, you guessed it. These folks don’t REALLY NEED an Apple, but they want and have one. They want to look good in coffee houses behind that partially eaten Apple logo and act like they’re super busy slaving away on the keyboard, when in fact they’re probably watching YouTube or even worse, updating and browsing Facebook (Yes, it’s still a thing). I’ve seen this first hand. People at coffee houses, clicking away and when I peeked out of curiosity they were either checking out Youtube, Facebook, or some other social media which doesn’t really merit the need for an Apple device. Now having distinguished these two people, the ones that don’t really need an Apple only bought it to “Look good”, imagine what type of individuals are so self-serving, they would buy a powerful machine just for the sake of appearance. Who buys a Ferrari to go grocery shopping at Costco? Those people do.
Do you wonder why there’s a vaccine war in the world right now? Why hashtags such as #VaccinEquity and #InThisTogether has to be constantly used by the World Health Organisation? It’s because everyone has become so individualistic, it’s all about me, me, me all day every day. Why do you think the rising number of COVID is now prevalent in the younger generations? It’s because they keep going out and hanging out with their peers for lunch, brunch, or wedding parties with no social distancing and no masks whatsoever. These people don’t care that there’s a pandemic, they don’t care that they need to stay at home. They only care about one thing and one thing alone. How they feel and look. Many people are behaving like it’s a normal Tuesday with no pandemic. These people are the other half of the Apple people. The “I need to take a pic of me drinking a Venti Caramel Macchiato with my iPhone while staring at my Macbook because I’m an ‘Influencer’ ” people.
Apple is a TRILLION dollar company. It is the beacon of technology for basically every single human on earth. It’s the company everyone wants to work at, it’s the product everyone wants to buy. So my question is, why doesn’t Apple start looking into nurturing and educating the next generation to be better human beings and not just better engineers and content creators? It’s already paving the way with recycling and carbon footprint. Why not expand on this and start showing people that they need to care more about themselves.
At the Apple Spring 2021 event, part of the product marketing for Imac was that the speed is so incredible due to the M1 chip that is in the new iMacs. In fact, it’s so fast that the presenter said “M1 delivers so much great performance you can even keep playing while taking in your next zoom call”. Thank you Apple, you’ve just taught the next generation and countless others that it’s ok to disrespect people by taking a call while playing an online game because there is enough speed on the computer. And that it’s ok to not prepare for a meeting. No, it’s not ok. Instead of teaching and showing audiences that they can take a call while playing a game, Apple should have said “We understand that sometimes you are so immersed in your tasks, you can’t log off fast enough for that next zoom call. With the new M1 chip, changing tasks and logging in is a split second move”.
Apple and its many conveniences are great for my and Tim Cooks generation because we’ve gone through the training in life for empathy, resilience, and let’s face it hardship. A former colleague of mine calls today’s generation the “Tofu generation”. Because they want everything easy and instant. I’ve had my share of mentoring new recruits during my career and can I just say, I’m worried. They may have the best tech on hand, the latest gadgets, and laptops. But they are in no way resilient. To anything. Whether it be work or personal challenges.
According to this article, there are 1,67 Million unknown viruses in the world. Each could be the next COVID19. Does the future generation understand the repercussions of this? Yes tech is advancing and everything is getting faster and easier, Apple has proven that a thousand times over. But with that comes the next challenges of what catastrophe will the next virus bring? The Spanish Flu was bad, but COVID19 turned out to be the worst. So with this trend on the horizon, it’s safe to say that the next pandemic will even be deadlier.
Instead of taking selfies and panicking, future generations need to learn that everything is connected. No man is an island and that yes, you do have to care about what is going on around you on a large scale, not just in your family, in your neighborhood, or in your country, but in the world. Everything and everyone is connected. They need to be able to share solutions and not fight over resources the way the COVID19 vaccine is being fought over today. We need to be able to think of ways how can we work together to overcome this? And this requires resilience, teamwork, and patience.
Funny how in every single Apple event all the product marketers and Apple team would take turns to showcase the newest gadget and tech that they have created. And yet, in real life, all of their products and messaging only convey one thing: Me, Myself, and I.
