It\u2019s Saturday night and you\u2019re out on the town with a couple friends hoping to hit up the bar and get lucky. After working all week everyone has high spirits and can\u2019t wait to get a jump on the nights activities. You’re all pumped up and ready to go until you arrive.\u00a0 Once inside, your \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t kindly informs you that you are the third most unattractive guy in the bar with a horrible credit rating, bad personality score, and a 120\/800 \u201cfuckability\u201d rating. Your night is ruined. The novel Super Sad True Love Story <\/i>by Gary Shteyngart uses a device called an \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t religiously. The entire world of the novel revolves around these devices. They hold everyone\u2019s data and can be used in a number of different formats; it\u2019s like the iPhone, but worse. In brief: the \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t is an NSA agent\u2019s wet dream. The use of \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4ts in this novel shows how technology has made us vulnerable and it demonstrates how such an advancement could lead to humans losing control over who we are.<\/p>\n
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The story takes place in New York in a time where the government of the United States is severely indebted to Chinese creditors. It\u2019s written in a style that flips between online instant messaging and the diary of a couple living during this time via their \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4ts. The two main characters are Lenny, a 39 year old Russian who prefers to live in the past, and Eunice, a young Korean girl raised by an abusive father who is full of personal issues. The narrative begins with the two meeting in Rome and Lenny falling instantly in love with Eunice. He asks her to move in with him in Manhattan and, although Eunice hardly thinks anything of Lenny, she agrees due to family issues back home in Fort Lee. Eunice slowly develops feelings for Lenny and both are happy for a time in their mixed up world.\u00a0 This changes when Eunice is introduced to Lenny\u2019s more outgoing and attractive boss, Joshie, and begins to fall for him instead. Joshie, who is the owner of a life extension nano tech company, had nanotechnology inputted into his body to preserve his life. This is what allows him, a 70 year old, to appear younger than Lenny. Eunice has an affair with Joshie, and when she comes clean Lenny leaves the crumbling ruins of the USA for Canada, changing his name to Larry Abraham. The reader then finds out that someone has hacked into Eunice and Lenny\u2019s private accounts and that the entire story has been published without their consent.Throughout all of the events and changes that take place in this book there is one consistent trait: everyone is always on their \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t.<\/p>\n
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In the novel a \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t functions like an iPhone on a necklace. It has all the features of a modern day phone or tablet but it can project information to other people\u2019s devices as well. People use these devices to communicate with each other as well as rate and judge other people. The 7.5 model of the \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t has a built in \u201crate me\u201d ability; it takes all of your personal information as well as the person you are interested in and through an algorithm gives a rating based on everything from credit, to personality, to even \u201cfuckability\u201d (which I find very odd). All one has to do is point their \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t at someone and it allows them access to personal information such as age, net worth, political position, and even personal photos. People become too attached to it; some even commit suicide when the \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4ts are down and left notes saying that \u201cthey couldn\u2019t see the future without their \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t.\u201d After large explosions hit the city, many are more worried about their \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t than each other. Without being connected, everyone starts to break down.<\/p>\n
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I believe there is such a thing as being \u201ctoo connected\u201d with technology. I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea of a stranger being able to point their device at me and view most of my information with a simple tap. Not only that but it was deemed abnormal and suspicious not to have a \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t in this world. I would say, \u201cimagine if we lived in a world where society would judge you for not having a phone or something like an \u00e4pp\u00e4r\u00e4t,\u201d but we do. If unarmed without a device such as an iPhone, Black Berry or smart phone of any type, people will judge and question your actions. I do know about 2-3 people who do not own a cell phone by choice (not for financial reasons) and applaud them for it, but at the same time I can\u2019t help but wonder why and I know I’m not the only one. Many will say that they are not one to judge if someone isn\u2019t up to date and connected in the cyber world. But sadly deep down, we all do.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s Saturday night and you\u2019re out on the town with a couple friends hoping to hit up the bar and get lucky. After working all week everyone has high spirits and can\u2019t wait to get a jump on the nights activities. You’re all pumped up and ready to go until you arrive.\u00a0 Once inside, your … Continue reading A Super Sad True Story<\/span>