I v. Pad
I have a sudden, desperate urge to get an iPad. Now, being mindful of my money and my time, I cannot simply rush out to get one. There are considerations, hidden and apparent, that must be evaluated. I shall explore the necessity, the probability of correct usage, the expense, and decide whether I should get nay, deserve, an iPad.
Why?
To catch the curious up on my current career aspirations, I have decided on some sort of path. You’re welcome. To help me on my way, I have a need to clearly define that which makes me most productive. This is not easy. It turns out that my attention resembles an elusive doe, traipsing through brush-filled woods, never picking a clear direction to run and always stopping to stare at something shiny.
Somehow, I have completed a number of interesting, sometimes impressive, projects in my life. They have cropped up too sporadically for my taste. If I want a workflow that suits a tenth of my ambition, I have a real need to define, structure, and refine the tools, environment, and scope of my output. I have already begun pointing everything in my apartment towards the television. So that’s done.
For a long time, I have derided those things that tend to make me more productive, thinking that I can shed them or learn better ways. This is not happening. Apparently, I require pretty peculiar milieus to keep me on task. Gone are the days where I resist this. I must learn and adapt. This means some trial and error. I have forced myself to try, or try again, different places, ideas, and very expensive superfluous touch tablets.
Why a Tablet?
“Why consider a tablet at all?” you ask in that annoying tone that you use when you ask ridiculing questions. I love my apartment and my fancy computer very much. I created a space that comforts me and I have a cat that makes incredible sandwiches. Unfortunately, it gets lonely and distracting in this space. I’ve always had an affinity for working in social environments. The white noise of a crowd’s activity pushes me to create. Also, the horrifyingly crushing weight of loneliness doesn’t sit so hard upon my cantilevered soul. Win win.
Other answers to this question: A decent laptop would cost too much, I appreciate the tactile aesthetic, and back up off my shit.
Why an iPad?
Now, let’s start with the annoyingly consumer-centric question: Why an iPad over other tablets? There are three small main reasons, I believe.
First, I have an iMac at home and I love it. It has provided a flawless performance, beautiful screen, and those obnoxious Apple stickers that my pride won’t let me put on my vehicle. I would like to think that an iPad would pair flawlessly with my home station, letting me seamlessly bounce impressive projects back and forth as I ride with the jet set to exciting locales where we raise champagne glasses constantly and belly laugh over our success in life.
Second, the ecosystem far and away exceeds the offerings of any other tablet. Their benchmark for providing both a variety and quality within their application choices has proven high. Not only this, but the choices for highly regarded productivity applications entices me far more than the Android OS (which really would be the only other option).
Third, as an avid sponge for technology news and opinion, I have still not yet heard of one other tablet that journalists say works better than the iPad. It seems a forgone conclusion that it remains the best upscale needlessly expensive touchy touch device. Not only this, but a large part of the philosophy under which Apple operates has always centered on creation. Tablets, as I will soon reveal, have a dangerous potential for solely giving recreation and promoting mere consumption of content. As I have previously made clear, if I so choose to buy one, I must use it for the productive good not the distractive evil.
Don’t you have something to admit?
I fear that I have something to confess. Now, you may feel that I haven’t been entirely truthful with you. You may feel betrayed that I have led you so far down this path without bringing up this piece of information. I assure you, I simply wanted to give you untarnished objectivity in regards to this exploration.
Now.
Let the record show that I did buy an iPad almost a year ago and returned it while I still could.
Surprise.
Please, stop lighting those torches and put those pitchforks back in the barn where they belong. I am not hay. With a windfall of Christmas and tax money, I felt flush with a richness I had not before known. Under mostly the same assumptions that I make in this article, I bought the damn thing. For two weeks, I woke up increasingly uneasy with my purchase. It seemed too much. Did I really need the thing? Don’t I have better ways to spend this money. Don’t the student loan people keep calling? After a while, it broke me. I couldn’t find the right routine and adapt to the thing. Oh sure, I worked on it plenty. I wrote a lot. I made this:
But I still continually felt like the benefits did not defray the cost. As I hinted above, the thing drove me to distraction. I’m not talking about games. I don’t sit there working, then let a game distract me. I blame the goddam internet. Always there. Always interesting. Who needs it?
So, of course, we must now ask the obvious question: Why do you think you deserve one now? Admittedly, I probably don’t. I personally believe that people can change and that we can improve ourselves to a wonderful degree. However, I also believe that this process takes time. Have I really grown enough in the past year to warrant such an expensive, dangerously-close-to-needless machine? Have I really learned how to minimize the distractive impact of the internet? I mean, I write this now from home base and I can cohesively keep it together.
With caution, I will say yes to those answers. I have thought on this for the past month, and through writing this I have come to the decision that I would like to try again with the great iPad experiment. For three short reasons:
First, I have realized that the Internet may not embody the pure evil I once thought. Along with the many refinements I have touched upon in this piece, this year has seen me funnel my Internet absorption in a way that has strengthened my critical faculties and increased the bare number of ideas for projects/writings/things to buy. I no longer view it as a complete distraction, the pure intake of so many articles/pictures/thoughts/things to buy inspires me now more than ever.
On top of this, I have discovered so many new web based tools that allow an incredibly easy distillation of browsing into one’s own creative aspiration. “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!” screams the unbearably annoying part of me that also constantly sings to my cat and looks forward to Christmas shopping in a mall. I also know that I have only scratched the surface with news ways to develop ideas and the future can only turn brighter, because nothing could possibly go wrong, right? Based on this utterly realist point of view, I no longer have the same sense of dread for the distraction an iPad might deliver.
Second, in the vein of the earlier point, in which I discussed my attempts to define that which makes me most productive, I believe that constant access to something I could use to track, develop, and clarify new ideas could only prove a good thing. How could it not? The mood strikes me at such unpredictable times; I need to play towards the mood instead of trying to artificially create it. Pretty straight forward.
Third, fuck it. Why not? I never take vacations. I barely buy things for myself. Besides books, some movies, and a few other things, my paychecks go toward trying to save as much as possible. Which I don’t as I don’t make much.
I decided that I have grown a lot this year. It was not a great year, but I cannot say it was bad either. It was a better year than last and I am better for it. So, why don’t I just do something nice for myself while I can?
That settles it. I will buy one. This has helped. Slowly, I begin my venture into my dream of a life of metropolitan proportions. Soon: the brass buttons, the turtlenecks, and more than one French cuffed shirt.
And I can wear one of these idiotic things:
Notes
-
posteriori posted this
