The iPad Spider-iWeb

Yesterday, I was walking at work and saw a vendor displaying his x-rays on an iPad. Probably a year ago, he would have had a complex setup detailing with light boxes and x-ray film all over the place, but this is now. This is the future!

The iPad has “cyberized” our everyday life. It has redefined our social experience to be one of seamless access and seamless management. It has become the social revolution of our time and we are smack-dab in the middle of it. It has become the agent (Slack + Wise, 116). in the network of lives that allows us to actively move in and out of these spaces anywhere and anytime.

If thought in the terms of “iPad as Code,” I have come to realize that this piece of technological advancement has now become a part of my daily routine as putting on my socks and shoes in the mornings. I have to make sure I have it or something just seems missing. (Slack + Wise, 118). It has become more of a focal point than many of the other technologies I tend to hang off of myself each day. It is more accessible and versatile than my cell phone (besides making the calls) and more handy than the laptop.

It has its own nature - it’s small enough that it takes the place of calendars, planners, calculators, and maps. It is the Swiss Army knife of the data world.

It has its own language – It draws attention from the surrounding population. Life has begun to pattern itself around it. We now have iStores, iBooks, and iPets. The culture has shifted to one where if you place a lowercase ‘ i ' in front of your business’s name, it is assumed to be more successful.

The iPad in the office changes the entire space as if it was insignificant before its arrival. Take the iPad into a meeting where everyone else has the good old trusty pen and paper. Focusing on the presenter becomes more difficult due to onlookers trying to get a glimpse on not just the iPad itself, but at the change in function. You can type notes now. As the presenter mentions certain topics, you can look them up and follow along. Sure, laptops offer similar purpose, but the form just isn’t the same. There seems to be something about holding a small slab in your hand that screams confortable.

In this network, the iPad is the nucleus and all other of life’s functions are the nodes. This pertains to our individual lives, true, but it reaches to the global scale, as well. If a meeting can make onlookers feel left out because they don’t have an iPad to use, imagine the impact of the iPad on entire countries entails. (Slack + Wise, 121). If your nation offers the iPad, then the population feels as if they have access to the biggest and the best resources possible, which is why many countries vie to offer the iPad. It represents power. As we discussed in class, a “dead zone” on a network is a spot where not internet can be used or accessed. The global example works in the same way. You may have internet, Wi-Fi, and laptops on every street corner, but if you don’t have the emerging symbol of precedence, you feel simply left out and in the cold.

This shift has transfigured the way we think. It has affected us in fundamental ways. The power over the technology we create has now taken control over us and our lives. It not only affects us, but future generations to come. The digital age we have helped to create will become the digital norms of tomorrow. The iPad will become the dinosaur of the 2000s much like the console television has when compared to the flat screen 3D TVs of today. (Slack + Wise, 123)

Bringing it back locally, the iPad has impacted the networks of my life, socially, spatially, and contextually.(Slack + Wise, 121). From my room, I can see Mars on the same surface in which I can deal with some disgruntle fowl, but the magical fact is that it actually works pretty well. It makes you feel powerful. It prescribes what advancement is supposed to look and feel like. And for all intents and purposes, it actually feels good. Happy reading (hopefully on your iPad)!