Symbolic subjugation to our iDevices

We're all slaves to our technology, whether we're
Apple fanboys or not. (Image credit: Unknown)

In light of the passing of Steve Jobs on Wednesday, probably paired with my having read this essay at GOOD titled "Why I Dumped my iPhone — And I'm Not Going Back," I had a thought today while typing a run-of-the-mill e-mail.

When referring to ourselves in writing, even in the middle of a sentence, we use "I," capitalized.  This convention symbolically demonstrates the importance we put on the ego, on ourselves as individuals.

Apple's product-naming convention, on the other hand, famously puts the "I" in lowercase, and capitalizes the first letter of the device name: iPod, iPhone, iPad.

Symbolically, this demonstrates the subjugation of the ego to the device, the tool, the machine.

With these products (and competitors') so ubiquitous in most of our daily lives, that symbolism becomes very profound.