I recently got back from a High School trip with my students down in Panama City Beach and they were interested in my iPhone 4 much more than they were interested in getting to know me (but not more than getting to know the other 9th grade girls!).
It was always the same thing:
OMG! Is that the new iPhone 4?1?!?1111??!
I would then reply “Yes” and then “No” when they asked if they could “play” with it.
But near the end of the 5th day I was already over it being “new” and it was all the same device as the 3GS (and the 3G before it).
How quickly I get tired of my “new” devices! Which led me to wonder how quickly things can no longer be called “new”?
Thoughts?
austinklee says
Here in Atlanta we have a Country Radio Station (94.9 The Bull). It has been on the air for at least 3 years and they still call it, “The New 94.9 The Bull” on the air.
Dippin’ Dots has been the Ice Cream of the Future since I was in elementary school. (I am now almost 30.)
So, I guess some people just don’t know when to stop.
Travis Fish says
I got the iPhone 4 preorder and had to wait a week to get home and swap it out with my old 3g. It is still new and I’ve used it for about 3 or 4 days. I think the “newness” of the device depends on how different it is from your previous one. For instance my 3g was really slow and since it was jailbroken even slower (don’t judge, I had to fix my silencer button problem somehow) and so the iPhone 4 was a huge upgrade so I feel like it will be new for me for a month or two at least.
Eric says
I would say 6months you can still call something new
Kevin says
Hi John,
Thanks for bringing this up. It’s something I struggle with as a Christian. I’m doing a series on my blog about “rethinking ethics in a digital world.” I think this post brings up a broader concept of “how should we then live in a digital world”.
As a tech guy, I love new gadgets; for me, it’s techy music gear especially. The digital age has given us access to so much amazing, useful technology to help us in our lives and especially in communication, no matter what medium we’re using. On the other hand, we also have an unprecented amount of consumerism evident in our “throw away” culture.
In that context, I wonder how the fruit of the spirit is evident in our lives as Christians in a digital world. How does love, joy, and peace permeate our lives? Do we look to the latest tech gadget to bring us bring us joy? Do we try to impress our friends with the latest gadget to earn their love? Does the latest gadget allow us to invest more in relationships or distract us from them? How does patience and long-suffering fit in to a culture where the new-ness of an iPhone only lasts 5 days or at best a matter of months and we were impatient for months waiting on it before we could have it?
It’s easy to write technology off and just say that it’s unnecessary junk, but I don’t think that is the right answer either. For instance, a cell phone is an amazing piece of technology. The ability to talk to someone from almost anywhere has huge implications on relationship, convenience and safety. Now that we have it, I think it has become a necessity. 30 years ago it was impossible; today, it’s almost impossible to live without. Looking from a more historical perspective, any cellphone is still “new.” But, have all the new features of the latest cellphones really changed that initial value proposition? Sometimes. Lots of people love the app store for completely useless stuff like iFart. But other things are imperitive to their work or social lives. There’s no black or white area that says when a new feature or technology is completely useful or wasteful.
So getting back to the point, I think as Christians we should generally have a longer view of “new.” We can be thankful for new technologies that allow us to build relationship (Skype is amazing!), but we should also balance the potential of new technologies with patience and long-suffering so that we aren’t dragged around by a ring in our nose by our quickly changing culture.
As an example of how I’ve been struggling to put this into practice, my cell phone is 6 years old. It doesn’t have anything fancy at all, but it can make phone calls anywhere I need it to. I really, really want a “new” Android phone. However, my phone’s functionality is still “new” for me because I don’t need any more than that. I’m plugged into my computer and the internet all the time at work and home and because we have small children we aren’t very mobile most of the time. So if I got a “newer” cell phone, it’s “new”-ness would wear off rather quickly for me because I wouldn’t use the new features. Now, everybody else is in a completely different scenario, so I’m not saying that to pat myself on the back or say everybody should keep their cell phones forever. But I do say it as an example of how, as Christians, we should probably be struggling with how biblical values and the fruit of the spirit are evident in our lives and if how we are living conflicts at all. There’s no formula to follow, but ignoring it altogether probably means we aren’t open to God speaking into our lives in order to continue to mold us into the people he is calling us to be. For me personally, I know that the patience I’ve gained from waiting on a cell phone for years on end waiting on it to die has bled into other parts of my life and I’ve been a better husband, father and co-worker for it. Somehow, God is using my struggle for a cell phone to change who I am as a person and a follower of Christ. Pretty weird and awesome at the same time.
I’d love to hear if others stuggle this way or if I’m on my own.
Lastly, in contrast to our culture where everything is continually no longer new, Jesus’ words in Revelation, “Look, I am making everything new” may have more or different meaning?
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com