While we complain about our precious gadgets there are people in other countries fleeing from war and suffering from poverty and hunger. I know, a bit of a cliché isn’t it? Kind of like when parents tell their kids to finish their dinner because there are kids in other parts of the world starving.
Apple announced their new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on September 9 2014. The Apple fans seem to have loved it as Apple sold over 10 million sets in three days.
Unfortunately a few snafus made Apple fans take to social media to complain – as usual.
We don’t want free stuff
I’m not the target consumer for U2, but I have nothing against them as a band as their musical style is just not my cup of tea. However, I never say no to free stuff, so I happily downloaded their latest album when Apple decided to give it away.
Yet a lot of Apple users didn’t take kindly to that gesture.
It seems that Apple decided to give away the album as a surprise. When you accessed iTunes or the music app on your iPhone you would suddenly see you had a new album available for download.
Cool idea, but as mentioned, not everyone liked that.
They probably should’ve stuck to the old promotional gimmick of sending out an email saying, click on this link to redeem a free gift from us. In that way you give your customers the option if they want the gift or not.
With that said, it’s kind of sad we as a society manage to complain about getting something for free.
iPhone 6 becomes iPod Touch 6
Then we have the, most likely, rushed iOS 8.0.1 update issue. This apparently mainly affected iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but still serious, as it disconnected the mobile service and made the TouchID unusable.
This is of course why it is often advised to not upgrade to a new version of a piece of software when a major release is available, as it tends to have some teething problems.
Luckily they managed to release 8.0.2 somewhat quickly to rectify those issues.
Complaints about this issue was fair I think. Not cool to buy a new, expensive phone and suddenly it doesn’t work. Then again, the phone feature is probably the least used feature on iPhones.
Bend it like a banana
What seems to have caused the most noise was #bendgate — which probably says more about western consumer culture than Apple’s product quality.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are thinner and larger than Apple’s earlier releases. Of course it will bend. Even if you have only a general working knowledge about physics this should be obvious. Sadly, not for everyone.
Take something as simple as a chopstick. It’s not meant to be bent, but if you try, you will actually be able to bend it, even break it.
The difference between a chopstick and the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is that a chopstick is a cheap eating tool. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are expensive products and should be treated as such.
Of course, as said, a chopstick not a gadget. So as another example, I can bend the screen on my laptop if I applied enough force to the right areas. Still, should I try to bend it? Of course not! Instead, I avoid situations where it would bend.
If you buy something expensive and don’t treat it with care, don’t go on social media and complain about it. Rethink how you handle your gadgets.
threw my iPhone 6 into a volcano and it melted wtf is this crap
— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) September 25, 2014
Social media is great to make your voice heard. By using the right tools you can even make yourself heard even though you live in a country that doesn’t allow the public to exercise free speech.
Yet it seems we too often give a bit too much air to silly outrage such as these above.
Which is why I find the term first world problems rather fitting to these issues as it shows we in the western world too often seem completely disconnected from the rest of the world — even reality sometimes.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t raise consumer concerns, but how about we take a step back and get some perspective. And the fact that some can afford to buy an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus just to bend it is kind of a slap in the face to people around the world suffering from poverty and hunger.
Instead of spending that much money to just get some attention on social media, maybe it would’ve been better to spend it on donating it a charity.