#10: Being Things vs. Doing Things
About a week ago, my iPhone and I parted ways—an illuminating moment that once again forced me to recalibrate my awareness of the device’s role in my life (I was abroad so I couldn't immediately replace the phone). Mobile technology evolves quickly enough that this experience is different every time it happens. Last time, it meant losing everything I hadn’t backed up, from photos to contacts to notes, and notifying my friends and family that I’d be harder to reach until I got the new phone.
This time, all of that was less true—most of the information on my phone lives in apps like Evernote that store it in the cloud, so I didn’t lose much. I also communicate using a wider variety of channels, such as WhatsApp and Skype, that don’t require an actual phone, per se. This time, security was the biggest headache.
Two-factor authentication, I realized this time, means the phone is a part of oneself in a way it never was before. Unable to receive a simple text message on my single trusted device, I found myself locked out of half the apps I use frequently. As in Kafka’s “Before the Law,” your phone is a gateway assigned only to you, and no one else can enter. Separate yourself from that device, and the gate closes altogether. It feels like a final failure of the password: There’s no system that lets unsophisticated users through and keeps sophisticated hackers out except one that verifies whether you literally are yourself. We’ve returned to that backward pronouncement from The Magnificent Ambersons: “Don’t you think that being things is rather better than doing things?”
Reads:
Tyler Cowen on food being the new rock & roll (I disagree somewhat with his argument but love the idea).
The DOT released a noise map of the United States. Check out the massive impact of airplanes (you can see the exact flight paths on the noise map).
A great two-part post on Eli Schiff's blog about app design, including an assessment of bad default avatars and the hilarious observation that the Apple Watch interface looks exactly like the 1996 Space Jam website.
Until next time,
Drew