The Iphone as a Cultural Artifact

            In this particular assignment, we had to explain the significance through expository writing of an item as it relates to a particular community you value. What does it say about you? How does it relate to your community? Why is it valued? When I had to think of an item that I think would teach a new way to look at taken for granted cultural values it really took time to think. I came up with the Iphone.  Steve Jobs Apple Chief Executive Officer of Apple has become one of the most well-known people today. With products created like the Iphone, with its ability to do almost anything it has made its high mark in America today. In the American Culture today technology is at its finest. Apple Company which makes the Iphone is one of the biggest companies worldwide and is only expanding each and every day. The Iphone has many values, uses, relevance to modern day culture, and effects on literacy, which I will explain as you continue to read.

           The American Culture has changed widely through out the years. If you go back about five years ago the Iphone was not one of the biggest things wanted. Things like the Razor, the Side Kick all those what we call old now, where so popular back then. Now as the Iphone was only made for AT&T it is now made as well for Verizon, because so many people wanted the Iphone and a lot of them did not have AT&T. The Iphone as well has many features that make things so much easier because its all compacted in one little device. Today in my culture the American Culture the Iphone is very significant for an everyday item and is relevant to you as well because you use technology everyday. It can be very convenient to anybody, especially yourself, and you can do so many different things you can not even imagine. Who knows you may already have the Iphone!


       Within the last few years, Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs has revolutionized American society through the creation of the Iphone. This source of technology has become one of the most wanted and influential items on the market today. With its ability to do almost anything, It has become more convenient, enhanced with knowledge, and entertaining for the lives of its owners today. By analyzing the Iphone's value, the uses, impact on society, relevance to modern day culture and effects on literacy, It is easy to generate a conclusion about the Iphone's significance for understanding how literacy is valued by people.
        When you hear the word Iphone what do you think of? The Iphone is a small mobile device with a touch screen. It has four or eight gigs of memory, Wifi, Bluetooth and a 2.0 mega pixel camera. The device weights about 4.8 ounces. The battery life is supposed to last about 5 hours of talking. The price may vary depending on what you get. The cheapest for a new Iphone goes for about $500. 
        We cannot understand the true value of the Iphone, but can see there is a huge value of miscommunication when using them. Wherever you look today almost anybody you see will be carrying a cell phone on them. People seem to communicate more on their phones with messaging, texting, Facebook and all the social media, and forgetting about the real way to do it which is face to face.  For example, when you walk threw the hall ways at school for instance not one person has their head up, everyone is just looking down on their phones. Not connecting verbally can be a problem, why do it on a cellphone when you can do it in
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person? We also loose a value of the important things in life. Textbooks for example. Students go out and buy over $200.00 dollars in books maybe even more for the semester, and because of technology when us americans fail to do our work and are assigned a certain assignment or paper perhaps, instead of really looking threw that book, actually getting your moneys worth, understanding the actual material, and trying to find the answer by reading your textbook like your supposed to do, what do you think people do? To try and save themselves they just click safari on their Iphone. By doing this they can go and access any website, and try to gather any information on the topic they need. This is so that they think at least they will not get a zero now, and because people believe since there are so many sources already on the internet, its the quickest and easiest way to gather information. The sad thing is half the time this strategy does not work. Yes, the internet on the Iphone does have some value when you need specifics like directions, or phone numbers. But, nothing is more accurate then the textbook for the course you take. Half of those sites especially Wikipedia is false information that random people just put out there. By doing this it will not help you learn the material or get you anywhere.
        Do you ever think sometimes the Iphone is just as accurate to a little computer in the palm of your hand? That maybe it has the same uses as a computer? It is amazing how apple is one of the biggest companies in the world and can create such great technology that has so many uses. Some of these uses may include communication, planning, fun/games,  a flashlight, personal shopping, taking pictures, GPS, news, and some of the coolest applications ever. With communication the Iphone gives us the opportunity to talk to people from miles away. It always has good service, and it does sometimes relieve stress. For
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instance a lot of relationship break ups are done over the phone. People do not like breaking people's hearts in person, so they think they can do it over a "text" because they won't have to actually speak. Thats why we remember the motto "Actions speak louder then words." With planning you can be able to put anything in a calendar you need to remember whether its something you need to do, if you work in a business field with a lot of meetings you can record all them, and even better you can even set reminders to pop up the day before so you remember.  There are many games as well you can download on the Iphone to keep
you busy. When you have nothing to do a good game of the phenomenon Angry Birds is always good, it keeps you very entertained.  Angry Birds started out as a game on the iphone and is now one of the biggest, or other fun games like scrabble where you put words together with letters, and wheel of fortune. You would never think a cellular device could even have a flashlight built in either, which on the Iphone is pretty handy as well. Its a bright light and instead of carrying an actual flashlight since it is heavier, the light on the phone is convenient when in dark places. Another good use of the Iphone is personal shopping. You can access any website and browse items like clothes on Victoria Secret, or cool electronics at Radio shack. As long as you have a credit number you can click it in right on your phone and do some shopping. Its good to when your actually in a store and they don't have the size you wanted in a shirt, you can browse online and order it on the spot. The Iphones camera is one of the best. It has a nice wide shot and the quality of the pictures is amazing. The best part is right from your camera you can upload any picture to sites like facebook, twitter, and even tumbler. With this camera you can also use Facetime. Facetime is a video chatting system where you can video chat with somebody else. When my friend and I were at the airport

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waiting to board a plane, she could videochat with her mom right off her phone with a touch of a button. The Iphone has one of the best GPS systems ever. It has an icon for directions itself and if your lost you can plug in instantly where you are, it will show you different maps and it will connect a route for you to get back on track. If you are in a unfamiliar area and want to see where good restaurants are, the GPS will pull every restaurant up with how many miles away it is and direct you to which one is the closest. The Iphone 4S the newest of the Iphone's actually has a voice activator now, and if you just say, "Bring me to the closest outback" the voice will respond to you and bring you there in no time. If your someone who does not have time to watch the weather that much because your always on the go, any weather alert like a hurricane, tornado, something thats really big in the news, the
Iphone will alert you that way you are aware. It keeps you very active with all around the world. The last awesome use of the Iphone is the apps. There is literally an app for anything. They have an app that is a baby monitor where you can have a monitor on your child from your Iphone, or even a hand heater application which warms your hands, as well as funny apps like pick up lines, or are you a good kisser. The Iphone can keep you entertained for days. 
        The impact of the Iphone today with modern day society all comes associated with technology. Technology has such an importance in our lives that we would never be able to live without it. From the moment we wake up in the morning and until the time we go to bed somewhere in between you are using technology. Everything associated with us in our society is technology. The important things today like emailing somebody, working, or talking to somebody long distance, this is all the use of technology, and in todays society, or the
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generation we are in the Iphone, as well as all the other Apple Products are associated with almost everybody. Now with these creations we have information at our fingertips twenty four seven, and society has become more efficient in some ways.
        The relevance of modern day culture is kind of similar to society. The American culture we have materialistic things. A lot of these things are types of electronics. The Iphone is one of the electronics that is used every single day. The American culture is not so much what it used to be. You may think of  men working in the fields, and wives taking care of the kids, but now both parents usually work, and take care of the kids. Every job brings in a different salary. Sometimes people who make a good salary and make a good living have extra money. These kind of people like to go out and buy the best technology like the Iphone, not just a Samsung old phone, but the phone "everyone is talking about." Or why go to the bookstore when you can get the amazon kindle? The electronic device where you can read any book
online. In present day cultures, individuals have become extremely pre-occupied with work, school, social life's, politics, etc., and this type of technology is in high demand because it allows individuals to multitask more conveniently and efficiently. 
        Literacy was affected by the Iphone because of its technology. People do not do proper research anymore. Instead they just google it on their Iphone, or use Wikipedia which is not a credible source. Majority of people do not actually take the time to read physical books anymore to try and get information. People get so used to texting that when speaking their language, or writing they use terms like "u" instead of you, or any other shortcuts and abbreviations. Getting in these habits are not good, because its not the correct use of language. Do you think using the term "u" in your resume looks professional? We need to get
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in the habit of using our literacy correctly the way we were taught, and doing correct research and know using those shortcuts, that there is a certain point when you can not use it in the "real world."
        The invention of the Iphone's values, the uses, impact on society, relevance to modern day culture, and effects on literacy by making it more sufficient, it diminishes the value of traditional research, improves the use of communication, keeps us entertained, helps us with our planning, and getting us places. Today the use of the Iphone has a huge impact on our society, along with other great technological advances.