The_Impact_of_Apple

Abstract Over the past couple of decades, through the use of Information Technology as the great enabler, Apple Computers has reached rarefied heights of scientific and technological progress in an amazingly short span of time. However, this wholesale implementation of information technology by Apple and its competitors has brought with it a host of unintended and unforeseen consequences. Through the prism of Modernism, information technology has not elevated society to the Utopic state that it hoped for. To the contrary, it has helped to create an existence categorized by constant change and an information orientated perspective on the world. Technological progress has not been accompanied by social progress. A comprehensive review of literature and an examination of both Post-Modernism and Information Technology, it is suggested that the influences of Information Technology have acted and continued to act to promote Post-Modernism. This paper seeks to illustrate Apple Computing’s impact through the use information technology via Modern and Post-Modern perspectives.   A culture of calculation is centered on hierarchical, logical arrangements, where the identified truths are those that are based in fact, not on opinions, beliefs, or feelings. Modernism is a core tenet to a culture of calculation. Modernism emphasizes that we can understand the objective world using rational, scientific and logical means. The idea for the computer is an example of a product of modernism, because the computer, being a machine, has no built-in biases. Its objective is to produce facts. Modernism also considers the idea of depth. Modernists ruminate on what lies beneath the surface. Modernism is focused on centralized ideas, hierarchical structures, and using logic. As in the culture of calculation, modernism requires centralized ideas to conform to set hierarchical structures, and that the answers to questions, explanations to problems, and reasons for how things work, are not only logical, but they also do not contradict themselves. In modernism, things are defined in black and white terms; you either are something or you are not, you cannot be both. In postmodernism, there are no structures, there is no objectivity, and there is no universal reality. As in a culture of simulation, what is real to the postmodernist may not be logically provable or concretely exist, but what is perceived to be real to a person is indeed their personal reality. What is most noteworthy about postmodernism is that different settings of reality can exist. In the modernist view of the world, reality can only be understood one way and can only be measured scientifically, not subjectively. The mission statement of Apple Computing is as follows: “Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.” (Apple Computing 2010) Many people in the industry believe that over the years, Apple has helped to transform the way people work, learn and communicate by providing exceptional computing and innovative customer service. They are seemingly always among the pioneers of the new directions and approaches that technology provides. Through the introduction of their many devices, it is their belief that they are finding innovative ways to use computing technology to extend the bounds of human potential. In reviewing many of the comments made by Apple, it is their mindset that they will make a difference. Their products, services and insights are developed with the thought in mind that they will help people around the world shape the ways business and education will be done in the 21st century. Apple’s continues to manage its strategic position such that it can achieve profitability and the competitive advantage through innovation in hardware, software, and Internet offerings. From a post-modern viewpoint, by employing the evolution of computing and Apple’s role in it as a model of historical progression, this allows us to see it as a state in which culture is resynchronized with a modernized world. Apple Macintosh users were interested in a different kind of control than was available with traditional MS-DOS computers. With the emergence of the Apple Macintosh's iconic style, computer users were provided with simulations that kept them at the surface of the computer. There was nothing in this system that prompted a user to move beyond what the system offered them. Users could get deeper into the structure of the system, if they wanted to, but what was apparent was that most Apple enthusiasts liked the dynamic of being able to stay at the surface and not having to worry about what mechanisms were being used. In this simplicity, Macintosh users found transparency; the Macintosh desktop interface provided transparent access to functionality. Apple rejected the modernist aesthetic of searching for depth and mechanism, no upgrades, what you need is already here. The apparent difference between MS-DOS devotees and Macintosh converts was that the Macintosh sect did not want to control the machine, they wanted to able to control how they explored the machine and navigated through it. Since the Macintosh interface provided their users with the ability to do, they found the system to their liking. Apple has become an influential entity beyond just the direct use of computer technology. I would like to view Apple from the Modern and Post-Modern perspectives. This will require consideration in: Modern Perspectives • Decision-making underpinned by rational calculations • Sees communication practices as accessible to researchers • Communication practice changeable through managerial control • Favors collection of quantitative data \ Post-Modern Perspectives: • Challenge the assumptions of modern perspectives • Argue that contemporary trends (globalization and Internet) mean that people have increasingly multiple and fragmented identities – impossible to generalize • Take critical approach to established communication practices   References: Alvarez, I. & Kilbourn, B. 2002. Mapping the Information Society Literature: Topics, Perspectives, and Root Metaphors. First Monday, vol. 7, no. 1. [Online]. 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