Apple’s new ad: a perfect reflection of society
Apple recently released an ad for the new iPad that shows a hydraulic press crushing musical instruments and other, older devices used to create art:
Many people have come out and said they hate the ad. But I think the ad is perfect: it shows exactly what technology is, and what it is becoming.
The hydraulic press symbolizes the immense power of modern technology to overtake our old ways of life and the inevitability of its crushing force. Because technology gives people short-term benefits without any regard to the debt arising from its unsustainable creation or its ability to destroy human relationships, it marches forward regardless of what will happen in the future.
People have said that they feel sad for the beautiful instruments that are being crushed in the ad. Sorry to say, but that is exactly what we are doing on a daily basis in our society: we crush beauty for technological advancement. Pretty much all modern technology requires unsustainable mining and fossil fuels in order to extract minerals to make it and ship it. The computers we are all using are made possible by the death of beautiful animals.
The Apple ad, as disgusting as it is, reflects what we are doing to the earth. Apple is just telling a story that they didn’t even mean to tell! It’s a story of hundreds of species going extinct because of us. It’s a story of the dying of the Great Barrier reef because of us. It represents what each and every one of us are doing when we buy technology, promote technology, and participate in the advancement of technology. Advanced technology, at its core, is unsustainable.
