Comments on: No, you're not in love with your iPhone

By: Teller

Teller — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:41:00 +0000

People like to be associated with certain things. A band, a film director – a company wants that to be its product. Research companies and ad agencies make money catering to that company’s desires. Sometimes it works.

schmaltastic: Many thanks for the salmon study. Comedy genius.

By: imagingguy

imagingguy — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:50:00 +0000

The argument was not about if you’re in love with your phone or not. The argument was that some imaging researchers saw activation in a part of your brain that lights up when you’re in love. They then said, “Ahh, since there is activation here when they see their phone, they must love their phone.” Then the actual science guys came in and said “That’s bunk, that’s not what that activation means, that brain region lights up all the damn time for tons of reasons”.

Essentially they never really addressed the “Do you love your phone” question with any evidence.

By: Stephen Olsen

Stephen Olsen — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:35:00 +0000

I don’t think it’s bullshit just because it seems so ridiculous. I have left my home most of my adult life without my mother coming with me, but if I get to work and realize I left my phone at home there is a moment of panic. I have no children or pets so relativly speaking my phone is the closest I have to that on a daily basis. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to assume that the brain reacts a specific way to something we depend on, like mothers and phones. I mean this in a very general sense of course. Losing my iPhone would be nothing like losing a loved one, but it is fair to say that on an average day you may react more strongly to your phone than a loved one.

By: NelC

NelC — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:42:00 +0000

It’s not as though that behaviour’s exclusive to Apple, though. Have you seen a car advert recently, any car advert? Wide, clear roads with no other traffic, unrealistic speeds, selling a magical, Don Draper-esque idea of freedom?

It’s not as though it’s even exclusive within the computer industry. Doesn’t your favourite computer firm use marketing at all?

By: Florian Braun

Florian Braun — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:27:00 +0000

Probably has something to do with the fact that apple markets its products as somehow magical and more amazing than anything else could possibly be, when in reality it is just good design and clever marketing.
Snark is a reasonable reaction to over-the-top claims.

By: NelC

NelC — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:53:00 +0000

Can we have an fMRI study of what makes people go off on a snarkfest whenever Apple or an Apple product is mentioned?

By: blissfulight

blissfulight — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 06:52:00 +0000

Maybe not.

By: johngoad

johngoad — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 06:01:00 +0000

They have tapped into my reptilian brain….

I am doomed

By: andy

andy — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:54:00 +0000

Honestly, sometimes I just hold my Iphone (3gs) in my hand for no reason. I just like how it feels. I go so far as to undress it, slowly taking it out of it’s case. I often wonder when I feel those receptors going off what the future holds. It works, it helps me be productive, it really doesn’t crash or make me angry like my Palm phone does. I think this article is spot-on.

By: michael Ellis

michael Ellis — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:42:00 +0000

So the title of this post was No, Your Not in Love with Your Iphone. Then you go to say that the images taken of the brain may show similar patterns at when we are experiencing love, but according to another researcher/expert that the brain is much more complex than that and we can’t say what those images show, indicate people are in love with their Iphone. Well, let me say this. I call Bullshit! And here is why, if you want to find out if people are really in love with their Iphones, just ask them what they would do if they lost it. I was in remote tech support for years with a company that gave tech support for smart phones and I can tell you from personal experience that not only do people love their Iphones, they love them in ways that I would say is similar to how someone loves their pet.
I have had to talk people down from hysterics over the death of their Iphone. Now admittedly its not truely loss of the phone itself people experience distress over. It was the data, the convenience, the communication, the connection to friends and family as well as pictures and movies, all of those things are threatened by the loss of their Iphone. So I say if you really want to see if people are in love with their Iphones, just see how they react to the thought of loosing it.

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:15:00 +0000

maybe.

By: James West

James West — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:03:00 +0000

I'm sorry? Ross Poldark?

By: Daemonworks

Daemonworks — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:42:00 +0000

On the other hand, an awful lot of iphone users will be more upset if you diss steve jobs than if you diss their mother.

By: blueelm

blueelm — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:36:00 +0000

Till the trust fund runs out and they have to drop out of college :( Poor hipsters.

By: BBNinja

BBNinja — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:28:00 +0000

Insert comment about generic hipster douchebag who sits in Starbucks all day playing with his Macbook, Ipad, Ipod and Iphone all at the same time. They don’t have a job apparently but can somehow afford any and every electronic product ever made that’s prefixed with an “I”. ಠ_ಠ

By: blissfulight

blissfulight — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:09:00 +0000

No.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:58:00 +0000

All I know is, I never felt like throwing my mother against a wall till her insides came out.

Just rub your functional family in everyone else’s face.

By: LAPete

LAPete — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:46:00 +0000

No of course people don’t love their iThing like they love their mother, duh!

The love of/for/with/about an iPhone is all consuming, and there is no greater love.

By: voiceinthedistance

voiceinthedistance — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:45:00 +0000

First week: Mistress
Thereafter: Wife

By: MrJM

MrJM — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:29:00 +0000

No, you're not in love with your iPhone

And you are not making love to your iPhone either. That's just fucking. Dirty, dirty fucking.

By: MB44

MB44 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:12:00 +0000

Written by a branding strategist indeed. Christ.

Apple- “We must change the dialogue about people being addicted to our product! It makes it seem like a drug and that is bad for business.”
Branding Strategist- “They’re not addicted. They’re, uhhhhhh, they’re in love with it!”
Apple- Uhhh, yeah, go with that..”

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:12:00 +0000

I dunno. I need to think about that one. Because I get what you’re saying. But, at the same time, I’ve known people who had far more objectively negative results of drug and alcohol abuse (becoming violent when drunk, for instance, or getting into situations where they personally are not happy with what the pursuit of drugs and alcohol have done to their lives). That stuff seems like more than “I find this obnoxious so you need to stop it”. But I do see what you’re saying.

By: schmaltastic

schmaltastic — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:03:00 +0000

The best fMRI study I’ve seen was covered here:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/fmrisalmon/
It shows areas of the brain activated in a dead salmon when shown pictures of humans in different situations.

fMRI studies generally need to clean up their act. The flaws are not limited to those pointed out by the study above. There are too many publications in the high-profile science press that would fall short of being considered a good high-school science fair project if it weren’t for the big expensive shiny machine that goes “ding”. I’ve basically had it with the fMRI crap-flood, so I’m tuning it out until the quality goes up significantly.

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:56:00 +0000

All I know is, I never felt like throwing my mother against a wall till her insides came out.

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:50:00 +0000

I don’t like my iPhone any more than I liked the samsung flip phone it replaced. In fact, I wanted a decent flip phone, but nobody makes one anymore. I settled on the iPhone, becuase my friends with android have bricked their phones in front of my eyes, and nobody makes a good candy-bar phone anymore. 10 digits and a red and green call buttons. That’s all I give a crap about in a phone. If you had that phone, I’d trade you my iPhone for it.

By: William George

William George — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:48:00 +0000

What a cowinkydink! The Taiwanese animators just put out a video about the iPhone 5;

http://youtu.be/hprj8WRit8E

By: Guest

Guest — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:47:00 +0000

I think you might be projecting. A little. ahem.

By: ackpht

ackpht — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:41:00 +0000

My resp0nse to a pretty, shining, ringing, unattended iPhone is to reach for a hammer.

By: MrEricSir

MrEricSir — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:21:00 +0000

Moms aren’t covered by AppleCare. It’s a lot more difficult to deal with a mom that’s broken than an iPhone. Plus you can’t upgrade to the latest mom model every year.

By: franko

franko — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:21:00 +0000

to paraphrase a wise man: it’s ok to “love” your iphone, just don’t “LOOOVE” your iphone.