Anti Social Apps

Someone at work sent around a link to a “cool” new app for iPhones, called “Color“.  The name alone made my hackles stand on end, metaphorically speaking as I don’t have a hairy back… yet. Although at the not-quite fully ripe age of 35 it’s only a matter of time before my body gives in to the onslaught of hair and I end up looking like an angry Chewbacca.

“Color”, why can’t Americans accept that it is colour? (As I typed that WordPress underlined the word “colour”, how dare it?) How lazy are Americans (yes a lot are fat) that they feel the need to remove a vowel?  That said, I gave this some thought recently, I think they do pronounce tomato correctly.  If potato is “poe-tate-to” then tomato, is surely “toe-mate-to” – we’ll keep quiet about that though.

Anyway, back to the app itself.  This is how the article introduces the idea of “color”:

Say you walk into a restaurant with twenty people in it. You sit down at a table with four friends, and start chatting. Then one of your friends pulls out their phone, fires up Color, and takes a snapshot of you and your buddies.

STOP RIGHT THERE.

I’m sorry, but in my book, if you pull out a phone in a restaurant it is the height of bad manners. What kind of restaurant is this author talking about, McDonalds?  Anyway, he goes on:

That photo is now public to anyone within around 100 feet of the place it was taken. So if anyone else in the restaurant fires up Color, they’ll see the photograph listed in a stream alongside other photos that have recently been taken in the vicinity.

Aren’t these people in the restaurant to converse with their friends, not sit there on their bloody phones messaging people they don’t know.  Call me old fashioned but can we please protect the sanctity of a nice meal from irritants on their phones.  Anyone who whips out a phone at the table in a restaurant should be forcibly ejected from the establishment – unless of course there is an important football match on and you need to keep an eye on the results.

Having said that, you do often see couples at restaurants who look miserable and don’t utter a word to each other, so maybe these poor souls need something else to pass the time.  Next time you go out for a meal just have a look around and I guarantee you’ll see a few of these dour-looking people masticating through their fillet steak and avoiding eye contact with their other half.

Anyhow, the point is that people seem to have lost all perspective.  The way that author describes “Color” is my idea of hell.  To him, it’s probably really “neat”, but then again he can’t spell colour, so what does he know?  I used the word “neat” there ironically, but on a second glance he does actually use that in his review:

So far I’ve described a compelling and unique photo app with some neat tricks.

I’m sorry but there is nothing whatsoever compelling about these devices and their associated social media apps ruining one of life’s little pleasures.  How can something so anti-social be social anyway?  As I say, we seem to have lost all perspective.  We were promised that technology would free up leisure time, not invade the increasingly limited leisure time we get – what a load of lies that was.  I’m sure double-glazing salesmen promise you all sorts, but it doesn’t mean they are telling the truth and so it seems is the case with these technologists who encourage us to ensconce every aspect of our lives with gadgets.

Which brings me on to what I witnessed at lunch.  The photo below is of the queue of people waiting outside the Apple store for the launch of the iPad 2 at 5pm today.

Did these people book time off work?  Have they pulled a sickie?  If not, then presumably they don’t have a job and in which case how can they afford an iPad2?  Regardless, I found myself wishing for rain.

Related Articles

• Color: New social photo app arrives for iOS (zdnet.com)
• Color: Is This the World’s Most Innovative Hook-Up App? (theawl.com)
• Color Founder Bill Nguyen Explains Why You’re All Wrong — It Really IS A $41 Million Idea (businessinsider.com)
• New Color App for iPhone is Kind of Creepy (lockergnome.com)