American iGods

It has now been a few weeks since I finished American Gods but I still can't help thinking back to how perfect my timing was. I was right in the heart of the book, around the part where Wednesday and Shadow were getting into fighting the tech gods, when the iPhone 4 came out. To top it all off, by pure coincidence I ended up at the Eaton Centre that day and got to witness the insane line that had formed for the Apple store. As I stood there I contemplated whether there was another example I could think of that so perfectly demonstrated our addiction to, and worship of, technological gadgets. I came up with nothing.

As a disclosure, I am a huge fan of Apple products. I have a MacBook, an iPhone, and an old iPod. If I had the money, I would have an iPad by now too. So if you were hoping this entry would be a rant against Apple, you will be sorely disappointed. I also don't completely hate technology (one would hope the fact that I am writing a blog would illustrate that very fact). Technology has brought numerous advances to society. Where I personally draw the line is where technology so dictates our life that it becomes an end instead of a means.

Thinking about this brings me back to something I read several years ago (and thus have forgotten both the source and context) and have kept in the back of my mind to this day. The gist was that in the past, people used to shop to live. One would only go to a store because a basic necessity, such as food or essential clothing, were required. Now, at least in North America, we live to shop. Unfortunately, I myself have fallen into the consumerism-as-pastime trap. But ever since I read that brief, but ultimately accurate, description, I have become more conscious of how frivolous-shopping dictates 21st century western life.

So when I saw the line-up outside Apple that fateful Friday (if only it was a Wednesday....apparently coincidence isn't perfect) my mind immediately went to how our relationship with technology has flipped. Just like shopping, we have stopped using technology to live and instead now live for technology. Instead of seeing an iPhone as a convenient device to making talking to people, texting, listening to music, and getting directions easier, it has become something people centre their lives around. Everyone in that line had taken time out of their life just to line up. Almost akin to the die-hard religious devotees who line-up to pay to touch the reliquary of a saint, these people were lining up to give a corporation their money in exchange for a piece of technology that would, like its theological predecessor, provide no meaningful internal comfort.

By the time I finished American Gods I knew that the new-found worship of technology was not sole aspect of the novel. But for me it was the most paramount point I took from Gamen's work. It shall now join the numerous life-lessons that I have extracted from the written word, and hopefully my life will be all the more fulfilling for it. For if there is one thing I am sure of, it is that technology will only continue to exponentially seep into our lives, and thus the more wisdom we can accumulate to keep our priorities aligned, the better.