In Andy Warhol's "30 is better than 1", "The Mona Lisa" is poorly reproduced thirty times. In this simple visual work of art, Warhol depicts that American culture values quantity over quality. This characteristic continues to be represented in our obsession with Apple's I-pod. It's no secret that America is obsessed with being bigger and therefore "better" than all others. We constantly strive to be better, and have nicer things, than our neighbors and friends. Even once we have the latest and greatest product available the manufacturer will undoubtedly come out with something better three months later and therefore force us to upgrade or be inferior. This leads to America, as a whole, never being satisfied.When the I-pod was first released many people wanted one out of curiosity. Now that Apple's take on a music player has becom ...view middle of the document...
Each day more and more people are buying Apple's I-pod. Almost every day you will see a forty-something soccer mom jogging with her pink I-pod mini or you will see her son in school tuning out a boring history lecture by plugging in his nano. In almost every household you will find at least one person with an I-pod product. This is simply because as the I-pod gains popularity more and more people feel the need to "keep up with the Jones'".Our great country is never satisfied with anything. We are constantly "biggie sizing" our value meals at fast-food restaurants, always buying bigger and bigger television sets, and continually upgrading our personal computers. As a culture we do not want to be satisfied, we want to be able to get something better. Sure it's an excellent feeling having the latest and greatest I-pod on the planet; however, those that have the best I-pod on the market are always waiting for Apple to come out with something better. Never being satisfied with what we have has lead Apple to come out with five different versions of their I-pod in the last three years, and each version was just a little bit better and cooler than the last. They went from being a five gigabyte brick to a slim, sleek, eighty gigabyte, portable video player in less time than it took Bush to invade Iraq.Although it may be beneficial to the economy, our relentless pursuit of the greatest I-pod us an unhealthy obsession. The corporations of our country play into this obsession and constantly add fuel to the fire by relentlessly updating their products. Their updated products are often downgrades of their predecessors due to the flaws and bugs that remain in early versions of products, such as the x-box 360. The general public is willing to sacrifice ease of use and functionality to have the latest version of something; once that version is obsolete their satisfied wanes and they start hunting for more. America's never ending quest for more will only result in a significant lack of satisfaction and never being content.
