If iPhone is Too Much for You Then Try iPlum

I confess -- I am seriously worried that I will be on the extinction list in human evolution history. I do not own an iPod, an iPhone, neither a Palm Pilot nor a Blackberry. I am also embarrassed to admit -- I cannot do text-messaging, let alone Twittering. I have been a stay-at-home mom for almost 10 years. I feel I am waking up to a world full of handheld devices; devices so sleek, so sophisticated and so much more than I can handle!!

Do not take me wrong, I LOVE technologies and innovations. If it weren't for internet and a brand new Dell Studio XPS, I wouldn't be sitting here writing to you. However, sometimes too much of a good thing is just too much! I just do not want these devices to become leashes on us!

I was on my daughter's field trip recently. One mother on the bus sitting next to me expressed the desire to catch up soon. I almost believed her until I turned around and saw her eyeballs FIXED on her new iPhone. She was busy scrolling… Hello!! I was just there 7 inches away from you, couldn't you spare 10 minutes chatting with me, NOW?!

There was the Thanksgiving dinner last year. I SLAVED myself for days cooking that damn turkey and millions of other things. All four nephews and nieces had the guts to leave their iPods on! I was mad, very mad. I wanted to yank their iPods off and to stuff mashed potatoes to their ears! Where did the old traditions go?! Families get together for meals, card games, stories and conversations?!

Last week I went on a camping trip with our Cub Scout troop to Big Sur. We took long hikes on the hills; went down to the beach; roasted marshmallows on wood-burning fires; gazed at stars while the Cub Master told stories about astronomy. Adults were having face-to-face conversations -- without constantly reaching for their devices (there were no signals!!). I cannot tell you how great an experience that was! Coming back rejuvenated, an idea was born - iPlum! Yes, iPlum "i" stands for "I" - an organic human being, "Plum" stands for "Please let us meet". I will have open house to my friends on warm Sunday afternoons, serving plums (the kind grown on the trees), strawberries, grapes, apricots … yes, we will drink some Java (the coffee not the Script) and chew on cookies (home-made not a chunk of code). Come hungry and thirsty - I will feed you! (Oh, please, just do not bring BlackBerries!!) We will play bunko and croquet and catch up.

I hope I am not a loner on this subject. Maybe I have been staying at home for too long, I crave human contact much more than those handheld devices. We need ourselves and our children embracing emotions and human connections, not generations of Aspergers parented by gadgets. The very essence of living is to love, to care, to connect with our fellow human beings. A firm hand-shake, a friendly eye-contact and a warm tone of encouragement just cannot be replaced by devices. I hope we use technology to advance humanity; instead of letting innovations restricting us to experience, to express, to involve, to reach.

I hope you help to spread the idea of iPlum. There are no manufacturing and marketing costs on this. The payback will be huge -- we will rebuild generations of people living more fulfilling lives and rely less on antidepressants. I do not want to see at the MacExpo 2020, Steve Jobs (or Steve Nojobs -- by then aren't most of our last names will be Nojobs?!) unveiling Apple's most revolutionary product - the iBaby. Yes, indeed, iBaby - robots with Apple's signature sleek design who think/act/look like us organic beings but functions 1000 times better! I do not want to see iBabies eventually taking over the very existence of us and the Borg era is born.

I hope the iPlum idea will start to grow into your hearts. Let's try iPlum, it does not have millions of features, however it will keep us humans ORGANIC and ALIVE…