This technology is so important because it represents something that is so central to who we are as human beings. We are interconnected in our relationships, our communication, and in the way we interact with each other and the world. The iPhone stands alone as a symbol for so many different things. According to the class definition of technology, the iPhone does help us understand the world around us to even greater degrees than humans have ever been able to experience. With social networking apps and the ability to have access to news and to browse the web at our fingertips, we have limitless abilities to communicate and connect with other people within seconds. The speeds of data exchange are incredibly fast and the ability to communicate with multiple people at the same time create this ability to always be connected. No more distance. Ever.
The Apple iPhone is something that has become culturally iconic, and as humans we have constructed the idea of what the iPhone represents to us. According to Foss, Foss, and Trapp, “a symbol is a human construction connected only indirectly to its referent.” (2)