June 10, 2009
A few days ago, my younger brother, who is finishing sixth grade, came in to our home with an amazing proclamation. “I want an I-phone, or at least an I-touch, because they are cool and everyone else has one.” When my dad and I told him that, no, he did not need one, he only repeated: “You don’t understand –everyone has one.” When we shook our heads again, he preceded to name, in alphabetical order, every student in his grade who had an I-phone, or I-touch, or some other ridiculously priced gadget of that nature. I’ll admit it was pretty crazy how many twelve year olds had these $300 phones. Yesterday, I started to volunteer at Good Shepherd Housing. My first job was to call previous clients, see how they were doing, and ask them a few questions about their current housing situation. The first three numbers I called were disconnected, and the next three were answered by friends or family of the client, who was at work. Across the more than twenty phone calls and standard set of questions, there was no distinct pattern in client responses. Here are some examples:
Question One: “Was the eviction stopped?”
Most times, the answer was yes…but not all of the time.
Question Two: “Are you still living in your apartment?”
Again the responses varied. Some people were in the same apartment, others were moving, and some had left and were now living with their famlies
Question Three: “Do you feel less likely to be evicted now?”
Several people said that although they feel safe for this month, they don’t know how they’ll come up with next month’s rent. Others said that thanks to Good Shepherd, they do feel secure. I couldn’t count the number of people that answered “I don’t know” or “what do you mean: secure?”
Question Four: “Do you have any comments about our work?”
Nearly all of the clients made comments like: “wonderful” and “very helpful”. One woman let out a whoop and exclaimed “I was absolutely overwhelmed. God Bless you!” Many of them thanked me for calling them, and for having faith in them.
Although I was glad some of the clients were doing well, by the end of my first day, I realized that I would never buy an I-pod touch, or an I-phone, or any other unnecessary item-even if everyone had them. Because, the truth is, in spite of what some social circles may say or demonstrate, “everyone” does not have them. Of the six billion people in the world, 16.6% of them have I-phones. I-touch users make up 15.5% of the world wide population. However, there are 100 million homeless people in the world. There are one billion people with poor or insufficient housing in the world. Trust me- they do not have I-phones. The people I called are struggling with keeping their regular phone bills paid, along with their electricity and monthly rent. They struggle to afford everyday items that we take for granted, and most of them don’t know the sense of security that we feel in our own homes.
This is a huge world we live in- it’s massive…and it is not ruled by Apple device users. We have better things we can be doing with our money, like helping working families afford basic housing. I promise I’m not condemning all electronics users. I am however, reminding people that in the grand scheme of things, the newest electronics really are as about important to real life as their increasingly small size.
