New iPhone 5 Ad Mocks Your (Virtual) Life

There's a new advertisement for the iPhone 5. Have you seen it? 

Ok, granted, it's not a legit advertisement. But the ad does a fantastic job of mocking your already hollowed out life, which is now lived more virtually online than in "actuality" (although an argument can be made that the virtual is indeed very "real," but stick with me for a moment, people). 

As an avid online journalist blogger, I consider myself to be a virtual-oso. I need to be. But I also recognize that the life I live online is noticeably different than the one I live in actuality. We are all aware of the various cultural critiques of how "virtual living" (especially via "the Facebook") has profoundly altered our way of being and, particularly, the way we interact with other living creatures, human and otherwise. 

As in, we don't.

To think of it differently: are your "Facebook friends" really your "friends"? Would you call any of them in an emergency? Invite them over to dinner, even?

Probably not. 

In his collection of essays entitled I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, Mark Dery addresses the consequential "objectification of friendship" produced through all this "online living," whereby, in the "Phantom Zone" of La Facebook "disembodied strangers pluck on other strangers' sleeves for no reason whatsoever."

Last night over dinner (in person, I might add), a friend and I discussed the cyborgization of humankind in relation to lesbian dating and mating habits.... Aka, "Lesbians, you so crazy!"

But that, dear reader, is a blog for another time. In the meantime, you can ponder the consequences of our cyborgization while you "lie awake at night wondering why you can't find happiness."

Now, who's buying an iPhone 5?