My grandpa never got on his soapbox to say, in his deep southern accent, “Baylea, I had to walk five miles to school when I was your age.” But if he did, I could probably whip out my iPhone and MapQuest the two destination points and say, “Listen Grandpa, it was not five miles but two and a half, with no traffic or sharp turns.”
That is, if those two points still even exist and if I indeed had an iPhone.
I can safely say I am probably among the few who still live without one. Not that I can complain, since I have created an unexpected bond with my new Blackberry Curve. It is definitely an upgrade from the phone that accompanied me for two years before my Curve. My previous phone did not have an internet plan, nor did it contain apps.
How did I survive, you ask? Well I did, but the five or so phones I had weren’t as lucky. After the third or so, my insurance plan cut me off. Was this my doing, or was it the fact that my phone could’ve been gently placed on a blanket and still gone haywire? Either way, no matter what I did, that same device always came back to me.
But with the introduction of the iPhone to Verizon customers (one of its last stops in cellular domination), the iPhone and its apps are quickly becoming more than just a part of our everyday vocabulary.
It is so ubiquitous that the University will offer a class, CIS 199 App Design, devoted entirely to producing various applications for smartphones.
But not everyone has been thrilled about the revolution of iPhone applications rapidly taking the world by storm. The Vatican recently declared a statement that the new app on smartphones called “Confession: A Roman Catholic App” did not redeem their sins. Apparently, many believed the app could, if the Vatican felt the pressing issue needed to be publicly addressed.
The outcry of these apps doesn’t usually seem to ruffle any feathers. Many people, such as my roommate, admit to spending countless hours rummaging through the various apps her iPhone has to offer. Once getting to the App Store, there is no telling where your journey will lead. There are provocative apps such as “100 Best Sex Positions,” intrusive apps such as “Lie Detector Scan” and even an app to soothe the competitive drinker’s soul called iPint, which allows users to tilt their phone to play a game that consists of drinking a virtual beer.
Need I say more?                                                                                            
The University catching whiff of this new technological drift is immensely beneficial for students. It is likely the demand for these applications will supply jobs to people with experience inventing smartphone apps.
Even in my Gateway 3 journalism class, one of our assignments entails creating a sketch of our very own iPhone application. Though print journalism may be considered a dead art by some, the journalism school works to prepare students for the new technologically advanced and ever-changing job market that awaits them, just as the computer science department has.
And though states such as Montana, which do not have AT&T service, opened up their doors to the invasion of iPhone phenomena only a few days ago, they also welcomed a new lifestyle in the form of a thousand thumb-sized buttons. They will contribute to the already four billion downloads of iPhone apps. I wonder if even in the state of Montana, home to almost — and I stress almost — a million people, will come to hold the iPhone as the new necessity, not accessory.
As I think of my 97-year-old grandfather, who lives on a farm where the most advanced piece of equipment is a microwave, and who whittles at wood to pass the time — I wonder if he would understand the cellular world we live in today. I chuckle and remember that he probably walked five miles to school when he was a boy.
I also wonder if I will be the grandmother who preaches to her grandchildren about remembering when there were actual video rental stores, not Redboxes or Netflix, and when people used to actually order pizza over the phone, not the Internet.
And although we may not know what the future holds, we can rest assured that someday there will also be an app for that.
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