Technology Promotes Individualism

      I have been noticing that ever since the advent of technology, there are many circumstances where technology catalyzes individualism.

     Apple has really been one of the more prominent leaders in this technologic-individualist movement, with products like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. By producing the world's first personal computer in the 1980s, Apple Inc. was trying to make a statement. In the first ever Apple commercial (Played during the Superbowl XVIII), called 1984, a heroine (Which represents Macintosh) destroys a televised dictator (Representation for Big Brother). While this commercial is somewhat light-hearted, I believe that Apple was subtly trying to tell the public that if they want to be more of an individual, they need a Mac.

     Another example of technology promoting individualism is manifested within the inception of the MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), created in 1983. Basically, this is the means by which artists produce electronic music. Also in the 1980's was when Yamaha began selling affordable synthesizers. There are many overlaps between these two entities; they emerged at somewhat the same time, and the fusion of these two instruments offer(ed) people a whole new medium through which they can create music, in which the imagination is the only limitation. This, along with other technological advancements, has helped to spur on the individualism which our country has been striving for since the dawn of America.

     Yet this same device has also been a significant contributor to the loneliness which engulfs so much of modern society. Very few families, it seems, actually dine together at the same table, but instead are separated by walls of media.

     So, which does technology create more of? Loneliness/isolationism, or individualism?