For some strange reason, I always have phone struggles. Either I dropped it and my screen cracked, or I was tinkering with it and accidentally bricked it, or my WhatsApp doesn’t work - there is always something going on with my phone. As I was trying to explain, for the umpteenth time, to my friends why I’m only available on Facebook, one of them casually commented, “Just get an iPhone.” Let’s look at that statement again, “Just get an iPhone”- key words: “just” and “iPhone.” In my young life, I never imagined those two words would be put in a sentence together and directed towards me. I really think I need to stop hanging out with moneyed people.
Here’s my issue with iPhones; I honestly feel like majority of the people who buy them just do so in order to look rich or cool or whatever. If you’re rich, go on ahead and buy your Apple products, my sentiments do not relate to you, I’m directing this towards those people who save up in order to have the latest iPhone. You’ll notice that a lot of the time, these are the people who weirdly enough never have credit, will not repair the phone even though the screen be looking like a jigsaw puzzle or worse, will ask you to send them a song via Bluetooth when they know damn well you own an android.
When you purchase an iPhone, you are essentially buying into a specific lifestyle. If you remember the old models, you couldn’t connect them to any laptop model that wasn’t running iOS, they could only share files between other iPhones and from what I understand the data charges have always been slightly higher for some reason (tech gizmos, you may correct me if I’m wrong). If you really can afford the Apple lifestyle, you’d have bought the whole set honey. But as soon as they made it easier for people to file share, suddenly everyone wanted to be a part of the club. So back in the day, the people who had iPhones had MacBooks, iPads, basically the whole set (it looked cool why lie) also wanted to join in.
I personally don’t see what the hullabaloo with iPhones is all about. For me, its functionality over aesthetic any day so I rock with Android. What pains me is seeing people take their hard earned money that they’ve been saving over the course of so many months to buy a mobile phone - really people? If you have to save to pay for it, you cannot afford it. Simple as that. Stop buying into this ‘Keeping up with the Jones’’ lifestyle because it will leave you with a hollow wallet and a hollow heart.
So, to my dear friend who made this comment, I will say it again - No, I don’t want to buy an iPhone. I’ll buy myself a simple android when I am financially ready. If the love is real, you will communicate with me on Facebook as I politely requested.
Kenyan Mwananchi is a blogger at (https://wondalandavenue.blogspot.co.ke/) and enjoys long drives through neighborhoods she can’t afford to live in.