A fallout of negative tweets (I'm still calling them Tweets) erupted after the "Crush" Apple ad landed last Tuesday on YouTube and CEO Tim Cook's account on X, the social media platform formerly Twitter. The video of a giant hydraulic press crushing things like paints, a piano and other instruments, pens and paper, and other physical analog items was meant to promote the tech giant's event last Wednesday about all the new iPad developments, but it just sent a wave of disgust across the internet.

"The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley," actor Hugh Grant posted on X. Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson posted on X a drawing of an emoji representing creatives getting squished. To Cook, he said, "I'm asking you directly: Is this what you think of the creative community? Is it your goal to crush us? To crush the life out of our instruments? To literally crush our souls?"  

Hearing this from artists that have not been known to embrace newer tech tools seems understandable although extreme with the "crush our souls" comment. However, I'm honestly just surprised by the article appearing on TechCrunch, a news website dedicated to the tech scene.  

The writers at TechCrunch and other tech-based digital news sites online do not have to agree with every piece of technology that comes out or how companies advertise and promote their products. Still, I am puzzled at the angle and the level of disdain that the author of "Apple's 'Crush' ad is disgusting," initially published on May 9, 2024, is taking this anti-Apple Crush ad stance, especially when they are literally publishing their written word on the internet. It just seems a bit ironic for a writer to embrace technology (the internet) and become upset that a new piece of technology will make older pieces of technology obsolete.

"The problem isn't with the video itself, which, in fairness to the people who staged and shot it, is actually very well done. The problem is not the media but the message. We all get the ad's ostensible point: You can do all this stuff on an iPad. Great. We could also do it on the last iPad, of course, but this one is thinner (no one asked for that, by the way; now cases won't fit) and some made-up percentage better. What we all understand, though — because, unlike Apple ad executives, we live in the world — is that the things being crushed here represent the material, the tangible, the real. And the real has value. Value that Apple clearly believes it can crush into yet another black mirror."

I want to clarify that I'm no Apple fanboy. I try to choose my products based on a variety of factors other than trendiness. I also don't like all the unnecessary extra plastic and tech waste. However, for someone in need of another device that is sleek and thin for travel and everyday life, a device that can compact a number of tools in a convenient and portable space, the new iPad can work for them. The "real" and the "valuable" aren't made obsolete by Apple and other tech manufacturers. It's also making these tools available in the digital space.

Since the start of the pandemic, I have been saying that a hybrid schedule works best. The ability to be inclusive and flexible in the digital space while offering the benefits of traditional in-person interaction is key to balancing life. I believe the shift in this realization towards a hybrid digital and traditional life feels like an attack because of the immediate halt of our typical lives for months during the early days of the global shutdown. We were asked to change everything, and nothing has been the same since. The introduction of AI into all of our regular tools seems extreme, as ChatGPT and other AI tools were not on the general public's radar only a few years ago.  

I don't believe the wave of new technology is asking us to dispose of all our traditional analog tools. Those things will evolve and will still hold value and meaning because us humans still value paint on canvas while making fun of NFTs, they enjoy stories written with human minds about humanity, and still yearn and pay for the tangible. As long as there is demand for the traditional, the more manufacturers will work to supply it.