Technology is supposed to make daily life easier, or at least that’s how the theory goes. The rail system provided a cost-effective means to transport people and goods through regions that didn’t have access to rivers. Penicillin prevented millions of deaths and transformed a society frightened of even the most common infections. Hell, even Agent Orange has it uses, though it probably shouldn’t ever be used in again in such quantities. So what about my iPhone?

Sure it’s functional. I can now get my e-mail anywhere — and Twitter, Facebook and God knows what else. I originally intended it for work-related purposes, but it turns out I’m not involved in enough things to justify it. These days, the phone is better for checking the weather or getting directions than sending important information. I even read the news in class to keep myself informed, or at least that’s what I tell myself. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

All across campus, everyone seems to have the aforementioned iPhone or perhaps a Blackberry, of which there are several models. I’m nearly positive I barely have anything legitimate to do with my phone; most people aren’t exactly doing much work either. Admittedly, there are some exceptions; I’m sure some of you out there really do have to have these smart phones to function, but you’re a distinct minority. For the vast majority of their users, these phones end up being little more than toys, albeit toys that cost in excess of a couple hundred dollars (and that’s not including data transfer plans).

There’s nothing really wrong with it; I just find phones unusual status symbols — they’re too practical. At least with a Burberry quilted jacket or poorly fitted designer jeans, there’s no doubt you have more money than taste. The iPhone can actually do something useful. Technology serves a purpose. Unfortunately, these days that purpose has boiled down to frustrating the end user. Computers and TVs, along with the ubiquitous super-phones, have become so complicated that the average person spends an inordinate amount of time figuring out how the damn thing works. And then there are the costs. Until the advent of big screen TVs, I’m pretty sure the average person would have considered spending thousands of dollars on a LCD screen ridiculous. These days, millions of flat screens are sold monthly, though there has been a decline in sales over the past year for obvious reasons.

Of course, there’s nothing really wrong with materialism. It’s part of the American dream. Young, aspiring men and women through hard work and cunning can achieve moderate success with their small business of choice and then spend all the money they earned on massive amounts of cocaine and a car so nice that the neighbors stare in awe, if not fear. But at some point, you have to wonder where this will all end. Nvidia has announced a new 3-D graphics card and people are constantly talking about some nonsense called “cloud computing.”  As technology continues to progress, we’re all going to fall behind the Joneses.

—Thomas Shattuck is a junior in the School of Engineering. He can be reached at Thomas.w.shattuck@vanderbilt.edu.