Reflection About the ‘Sun’ From Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Gutenberg Galaxy

Reflection About the ‘Sun’ From Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Gutenberg Galaxy
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Reflection About the ‘Sun’ From Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Gutenberg Galaxy
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Reflect on a time when you’ve witnessed people around you treating a new technology as if it were the ‘sun’ from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. What did you notice initially? A few months or years later?
When the first smartphone came into the market, people had different views. On January 9, 2007, the world came at a standstill as Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. Jobs had always wanted to change the world, and the iPhone was his way of showing the world that he had something special up his sleeve. However, people were in denial, and many did not think it was a good idea to have a touch-screen phone. Comments came in thick and fast as more people expressed displeasure at the thought of using a touch-screen phone. People’s initial response was not as welcoming as Apple had thought. But, Jobs and his team wanted to change people’s perceptions and approach to things. Heisler (2015) compiled some comments that were coming in as people were trying to wrestle with the idea of owning a phone with touch-screen capability, a camera, an iPod, and Web-browsing capability.
Example of comments regarding the iPhone (Heisler, 2015):
I’ll be keeping my Samsung A707, thanks. It’s smaller, it’s got a protected screen, and it’s got proper buttons. And it’s got all the same features otherwise. (Oh, but it doesn’t run a bloatware OS that was never designed for a phone.)
Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here.
However, a few years after the launch of the iPhone, the world had welcomed smartphones, and everyone wanted to own one. Other companies like Samsung and Nokia followed suit since Apple was setting the bar and taking over the industry. Like the ‘sun’ from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, people got used to the idea of owning smartphones. Touch-screens became a trend that took over the entire industry, and companies that did not adjust fast enough were forced to shut down.
The way people use smartphones has evolved into something magical. Smartphones give people acc...