Brave New Phone

ET phone home.
Now if he did, he would probably use the iPhone.
Is there anything this new iPhone cannot do? It is a phone, oh yes, but much more. With the release of the iPhone, it seems as if our gadgets and our mindset have finally been pushed over the edge into the abyss of the inescapable high-tech black hole.
In case your name is not already on the waiting list for this must-have, allow me to tell you why it should be. The iPhone functions as a computer, a web browser, a personal movie theater, a music library, a photo management sharer, not to mention it is all hands on - literally.
It has a much-adored touch-screen, so you have a plethora of information at your fingertips. I have got the whole world in my hands … well, at least World Wide Web.
The iPhone’s resumé is quite impressive, and it makes its owners’ lives very easy - almost too easy. Currently we have already become so dependent on technology to connect us to the rest of the world that the iPhone may escalate our physical isolation from our 3-D world to cyber space.
I am all for technology because without it, we would not be as efficient as we are today. Nevertheless, some people say that computers and electronic gadgets have made us less productive by occupying so much of our time and our imagination.
Either way, we need to remember how to function on our own in case one of these machines malfunctions!
While the iPhone is a truly extraordinary product, we need to retain some independence, value person-to-person relationships and not become too attached and too dependent on devices.
Technology is supposed to uncomplicate our lives, not consume us. These days we send e-mails instead of personal handwritten letters, tap out instant messages instead of placing phone calls, and spend hours alone, in front of a computer screen instead of visiting with friends.
With Apple hoping to sell an estimated 10 million iPhones in the first year, that is a lot of “I’s” who have the ability to form one “us.” All of this techno stuff is fun and convenient but let us not lose touch with our fellow living creatures for these impersonal electronic devices. The iPhone can dial, but you make the call.
Columnist Note: I am running the San Francisco Nike Women’s Marathon this fall with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Team in Training. Please help me raise money for a cure! Visit my website at www.active.com/donate/tnttxgc/ tnttxgcMBaker