There are two types of people. Those who go to a concert and record horizontally (landscape) and those who go to a concert and record vertically (portrait)
The first are we, the ones who comb gray hair and want to remember things in 16:9 format. Second, those who prefer to think of sharing them on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube shorts that have made the reverse format trending
I experienced this moment a few months ago at a concert where 90% of the people in attendance were teenagers. We heard little from the music group itself because the listeners were groupies Those who sang called out the songs to see if they managed to make themselves heard more than those standing next to them. And then there was the other thing: there were people who spent the concert recording videos. vertical, of course.
I immediately realized that 1) they were recording to share, not to remember, and 2) they were recording with the iPhone. And that’s exactly what a recent tweet addressed, which made me tremble a little.
The answer to this user’s question was clear. At this concert, people used iPhones. The one I was in was the same. For example, the cover picture is from the concert, where I realized what the calico was like.
How are you doing? Well, it’s dominated by Apple, which has managed to become the company that almost everyone wants something (or many things) from. It doesn’t matter that it’s more expensive and not necessarily better—Marques Brownlee recognized this in his recent comparison—it’s just fashionable. In the US, for example, 87% of young people own an Apple phone. There is nothing.
And not just for older people; the iPhone is the product of choice for young people and adolescents. Every kid wants an iPhone because every other kid already has one. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the latest, and in fact, older models continue to sell very well thanks to their longstanding iOS support. the 2017 iPhone 8 was updated to iOS 16 by this year, and by then, I don’t think that’s for many Will be a problem, folks, in a few years as I am able to update to the upcoming iOS 17. Wallapop has plenty of these for around £150, and people prefer them over, for example, a Pixel 6a, which currently costs £355 new (I’ve seen Wallapop used at £250), and that’s in my modest price range. In my opinion, it’s a much, much better phone, and most importantly, it will have more travel than a cascaded iPhone 8.
But of course. It’s not an iPhone.
That’s what people said in this tweet. “You have it for pure fashion”, He said. That, I would say, is the great summary of the reality that made this mobile phone what it is: the phone for a whole generation. If you don’t have it, you’re sleazy, you’re not cool, and you’re out. It’s happened before; when I was young, the vibe was more reminiscent of Nike Naic or Levi’s Levi’s, and I also remember a unique and brief time around 2010 when the fashion phone was among kids—and not quite kids—not a (young) iPhone or a Nokia, but a Blackberry. Not because of the cell phone itself, but because back then, BlackBerrys gave access to WhatsApp, a BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) that taught us that instant messaging was going to be a huge hit.
All fashions are like that, but among the youngest, they are even more powerful, and those who manage to attract these new generations have a gold mine. One that won’t last forever but will leave its mark and maybe have loyal users in the future too.
Then, of course, there is the other problem. That of the 15-year-olds who own a 1,000-euro mobile phone. To me, it doesn’t seem to help them all that much to see young men and women with iPhone 14s, but it has to be everything in this life, and every parent, because I understand that these children can’t afford this mobile phone, does have to be the best they can be. In this case, and every time I see it more often, it’s awful. I respect it, but I don’t share it.
But there are the teens clamoring for iPhones because, once again, where Vicente goes, people go. There is a famous catchphrase in English, “Keeping up with the Joneses,” that reflects the reality where people compare themselves to their neighbors and try to have everything others have so as not to feel inferior. The world we live in—capitalism, consumerism, and materialism triumph and trap us whether we like it or not—doesn’t make it easy for us, nor do social networks that magnify everything and those that don’t follow the rhythm expose even more. It’s not just the iPhone, of course, but with teenagers today, as I said, this phone has become a worrying filter for many people. If you have it, you’re cool (or you have the ability to be). If not, you’re lost. Or unfortunately, they think so.
