iPhone applications have reached a new low with the debut of the BOMBED Beer Pong Challenge. BOMBED, the No. 1 brand in beer pong, has made the leap into the digital world and gives enthusiasts the ability to play anywhere at any time.’
The application features an arcade mode with 27 levels of fast-paced play, a versus mode, allowing players to compete against each other, realistic physics and 3-D graphics and dynamic camera movements.
‘I was really impressed with the accuracy of this game and how realistic it felt,’ Madison McCord, of Spokane Falls Community College, said.
No matter how ‘realistic’ this application may be, is there really a point to a beer pong video game? One might as well be playing a digital version of Plinko from The Price is Right. Of course, this could possibly save young people from the pitfalls of binge drinking, but this writer fails to see the appeal.’
Beer Pong Challenge isn’t the only iPhone application with its practicality in question. The epitome of this has to be PhoneSaber. As the name suggests, PhoneSaber allows its users to ‘wield’ a Star Wars lightsaber – sort of.’
A user is shown the avatar of a miniature lightsaber on his screen and given the choice of blade color. By waving his or her iPhone through the air, the user can replicate the sound effects of a Jedi knight’s weapon, an elegant instrument for a more civilized age. In short, however giddy it may make Star Wars fanboys, it has no practical use.’ But really, what applications do?’
From iSolitare to FiveDice, such applications are little more than entertaining diversions to occupy the mind or digital age upgrades of newspaper crossword and Sudoku puzzles. If those classic pastimes are more your style, fear not, for there are iPhone applications for them as well.
The main issue is not with the apps themselves, but rather the constant need for people to use them. Everywhere one turns, especially on college campuses, people are on their iPhones or other G3 devices playing NetChess, Tap Tap Revolution or some other ridiculous game.
One would think a university would be an ideal place for social interaction, but young peoples’ overreliance and abuse of convenient technology hinders this quite a bit. For some, every free moment is to be spent on one’s mobile communication device.’
We’ve all seen this or been a party to it ourselves, but how many times has someone pulled out a cell phone just to avoid sharing pleasantries with others, or maybe as a defense mechanism against certain individuals or organizations they wish to avoid as they make their way across campus?
It may be an effective evasion tactic, but let us hide behind technology no longer and truly endeavor to be more social and outgoing to those around us. To quote Seinfeld’s George Costanza, ‘We’re living in a society!’
