Up until this past Easter, my 85-year-old grandmother had never stepped foot near a computer or anything remotely resembling one. And then she discovered the iPad…
My fiancé had preordered one of the “next big things,” so after church on Easter Sunday, he glued his butt to the couch for hours to check out all that it had to offer. Of course my sister’s husband, who is in love with his iPhone and any other high-tech gadgets, couldn’t help but be intrigued by Apple’s greatest new invention. But before I knew it, everyone in my family was crowded around it, trying to get in on the action!
The biggest hit was the YouTube app that comes preloaded on every iPad. To show it off, my fiancé downloaded the viral video that I’m sure everyone’s seen – the one where baby Charlie bites his brother’s finger and the little boy with the British accent screams, “Ouch, Charlie bit me!” The next thing I knew, my 3-year-old niece was holding the iPad in her little hands, watching this clip over and over again saying, “I want to watch the babies again!”
On the last new episode of ABC’s Modern Family, Claire runs around town trying to buy her husband Phil an iPad for his birthday. When she finally manages to get her hands on one, she downloads an app that displays a birthday cake loaded with candles and lets you make a wish and blow them out. Well, unfortunately, we downloaded it and it didn’t work – the candles blow themselves out right away. But my niece was mesmerized by the music and confetti that falls on the screen and kept pushing my hand away and saying “Leave it,” when I tried to close the app.
What struck me most about the iPad, which really sets it apart from the iPhone, is its ability to engage multiple people at once. This allows people to share in an experience – whether it be reading the paper together, or playing a game of Scrabble. With the iPad, I see a glimmer of hope that we will move away from the days where people are glued to their cell phones, ignoring the actual people around them, and towards a world where technology is used to enhance relationships instead of replace them.
As someone who’s professional life is so dependent on technology, it made me happy to watch my family pass the iPad around our living room, able to enjoy something that I appreciate. But as I watched my grandmom holding the iPad, watching an instructional video on how to perform a difficult crochet stitch, I realized that Apple had once again outdone themselves.
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