If nothing else,  , Apple’s unpleasant advertising announcing the new iPad Pro , has the morality of being brutally honest. An old vinyl recording of Sonny and Cher’s” All I Ever Have Is You” is the opening scene, which features an industrial press gradually destroying an eclectic collection of vintage musical instruments, color and arts supplies, and Gen X-era playthings and tchotchkes.
In other words, it destroys a bunch of stuff that makes living fun, unique, intriguing, and entirely human.  ,  ,
The media lifts up to reveal the new iPad Pro after all that old products, including the odd objects and romantic artifacts from the pre-digital period, has been flattened under the inexorable mass of equipment technology. The concept is so obvious it hardly needs to be spelled out: This slender digital product is supposed to replace — and override — all these bulky, analog, obsolete , things. All you need, we are made to know, is this new element of digital technology, this iphones. The sleep, the debris of the real world, can essentially be destroyed.
Apple CEO Tim Cook posted the campaign on X and commented,” Only visualize all the things it’ll be used to create”. ( An odd comment, after just showing us all the things it’ll be used to destroy. )
The information was not well received. Hugh Grant, retweeting Cook’s blog, succinctly , put it on X , like this:” The death of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley” . ,
Grant is best. It’s difficult to imagine a better visual representation of how Big Tech replaces the real world with a beautiful digital simulacrum, destroying both creativity and art. And what a distinction the campaign is to Apple’s iconic , 1984 campaign, which promised that technology may liberate us from the crushing tyranny of Big Brother. Instead, Apple is now promising to destroy the physical means of human creativity ( musical instruments, arts and crafts supplies, whimsical toys ) and replace it with their cold, soulless technology — the fake replacing the real.  ,
In that sense, Apple is at least telling the truth. In our time, the digital revolution has undoubtedly been a disaster, and it is undeniable. We’ve become disconnected from the world, alienated from the , givenness , of physical reality, with all its limitations and contingencies — limitations, by the way, that were salutary because they pushed and inspired us to be creative and innovative. Apple is not at all isolated in this, of course. Every Big Tech firm subscribes to the pernicious ideology exemplified by this new iPad ad, from Mark Zuckerberg’s creepy” Metaverse” to Apple ‘s , ridiculous Vision Pro headset released last summer, heralding an “era of spatial computing … where digital content blends seamlessly with your physical space” . ,
However, physical space cannot and does not seamlessly blend with digital content. It tends instead to separate you from physical space, alienate you from other people, and destroy authentic community.  ,
No wonder then that the emergence of social media and the iPhone about 15 years ago triggered a sustained increase in anxiety, depression, and antisocial behavior, especially among young people. Today, teenagers are increasingly uninterested in the real world or even in real relationships. Instead of going out, they stay in on their devices. Similar to how young Americans would have acted as a couple in earlier times. A growing number of them do not anticipate having any romantic relationships.
It was n’t supposed to be this way. The proliferation of digital technology promised to connect people, but it has instead created a populace that’s lonely, depressed, isolated, and addicted to smartphones, porn, and social media. It has also diverted us away from the physical world, from hobbies and activities, sports and nature, live music and real community. In place of these concrete goods, we’ve been given a steady stream of low- level dopamine hits, delivered by increasingly powerful ( and portable ) digital devices like Apple’s iPad Pro.  ,
We should stop using these digital slot machines altogether rather than just mocking Apple for its creepy, tone-deaf ad. There’s no compelling reason to be connected to our devices 24/7, whether it’s changing our habits or putting up with some more inconvenience. There’s honestly no reason most of us even need these devices. If we all got rid of our iPads and smartphones, if we all deleted our idiotic apps and got offline more often, we’d all be a lot happier.
Remember that businesses like Apple want to destroy everything that makes life enjoyable and instill in us a love for digital products that imitate reality. We do n’t have to let them.  ,
