Remember walking into the Verizon or Sprint store back in 2007 and wondering which type of flip phone would best reflect your personal style? This was the height of the Razor, LG Ev3 and the Juke, all of which were a personal reflection of the lifestyle we wanted to represent.
The Razor was a reflection of middle-school chic, high class and Paris Hilton on the show “The Simple Life,” while the Juke represented not only an ugly phone model but also a way of saying “I’m proud to be unique.” A personal favorite, the LG Ev3, was easy to use, had a functioning keyboard and could survive a round or two in the washer.
While the topic of diversity is one we typically associate with people, what happened to the diversity of our phones?
Welcome to the modern age. One may walk into a phone carrier store and be greeted with a few bare words: “Apple or Android?” This simple question can spark a series of controversy. One runs iOS, the other uses Google Play, and both are based on people’s preferences.
While both models have been shown to be an improvement from the flip phones of the early 2000s, they have taken away the “fun” of choosing a phone that reflects personal style.
Long gone are they days where one could choose a “color” for a phone and a ringtone that was unique to someone’s style. Now when one hears a certain ringtone, the whole room checks to see if it’s their phone ringing.
While phone cases may suffice for the color scheme, it will never be as cool as having a red, blue or bright pink phone. While Apple has tried to bring back color to the iPhone 5C, Android phones have primarily stuck to the black and white scheme. Both have the same flat face screen that lights up with notifications from text messages to Instagram likes.
Society no longer has to worry about accidentally pushing the “Internet” button on our phones, however, as it’s virtually impossible to have phone without Internet. But didn’t we enjoy pressing the “end” button 50 times so our phone bills wouldn’t go up?
Now society has fit us into an even tighter cellular mold, because all of our phones work and look the same, right down to the chargers we use. While some phone carriers like Windows have tried to break this mold, it’s as loud and clear as an Apple ringtone that society prefers this black and white mold.
Don’t we miss the diversity and bedazzling of our old phones? I miss slamming down my flip-phone after a dramatic conversation and uploading those awkward, disproportionate cellphone camera photos to my Myspace page.
Diversity is lacking in society’s personal style. While we are constantly being put in a tighter mold, we should be breaking it, starting with bringing back our phones. Bring back the fun of choosing a color scheme, a variety of ringtones and a physical keyboard, please.
While we’re at it, can phone carriers bring back the ability for phones to survive counter-falls or an occasional washer incident? Society is becoming too much alike — it’s time to stir in some diversity, starting with our phones.