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Falling Status and Iphone
44 Plays23 days ago
In uncertain times, dropping your iphone feels like the last straw. The world is breaking down around me.
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Transcript
The iPhone Incident
00:00:00
Speaker
All right, here we go. Zayana, my kid, ah drops my iPhone down from the balcony. ah Well, from the balcony. and And we live on the fifth floor. So you can imagine what happened. I walked over.
00:00:18
Speaker
I knew he had done it. i leaned over the rails and i I see the iPhone down there like a dead body at a crime scene. I can see it on the sidewalk smashed.
00:00:30
Speaker
You tell from the fifth floor, even though it was nighttime. And I went down and I got it. And ah it was ah it was like exactly what like I thought it would be completely smashed. And and the worst part about it was.
00:00:43
Speaker
As soon as I saw it happen, I was like, I'm going to buy another iPhone. that It hit me right there and then that I was going to have to replace it. You see, this isn't the first time my kid has ah has messed up my phone. Like ah he has dropped it on occasions on the on the floor or something and smashed the screen and have had to replace it. He has thrown things outside the balcony like his toys and stuff. But this was the first time he combined the two. And it's been a long time since ah since he's done something ah like this.
00:01:21
Speaker
And I think he was a little annoyed because we were all like watching him walk in and out the
Reflections on Parenting and Financial Strain
00:01:26
Speaker
balcony. He loves to. walk around outdoor outside and in and whatever and everyone was kind of like be careful with the phone be careful with the phone and i look back at that thing at that moment and i think um i think he did it out of spite man i think he was just like you know what shut the hell up you you don't get to tell me what to do you're not my parents although we were his parents and and the nanny included so um
00:01:52
Speaker
ah it happened and the phone went down man and i just looked at him and i was like this kid is costing me so much ah i i just need him to like grow up and take care of me you know because i come from a from a developing country it's not like there's a lot of like um a lot of support back there once you retire. So I'm just looking at them thinking, hey man, i you you you better become like a big sports star or just famous or big, like a heart surgeon, something. You gotta do something. You gotta to take care of me because this is costing me. Soon as I it went down, i was just, I just look at, man, it's just tiring.
00:02:33
Speaker
it's It's chaos. it's It's so tiring to see this happen. And I think back, my my parents had five kids And I think back all the stuff I did. You know what? My kid's actually really good compared to probably all the crap we did. Or even if we did half the stuff he does, we multiply it by five. You know, do the math. Like it just sounds like a lot more my parents had to go through.
00:02:56
Speaker
And they just went through it. They just like took it. I never saw them cry in front of me. You know, that's the incredible thing. I know I have cried in front of my kid when I've been like really tense about ah money or work or whatever. And I remember my parents really ever doing it.
00:03:14
Speaker
And I just think either they were the most bravest, calmest people in the world, which they, you know, my my mom's still around, my dad, um he always did seem very calm. But at the same time, like they must have cried at some point. They must have broken down at some point. Not with five kids at it at them, you know. it it had to have happened. And I just think, God, I was awful.
00:03:37
Speaker
And I think that's the curse of parenting. It's the... It's the nicest thing in the world. It's the most loving thing you'll ever have. And at the same time, you're just like, I want to murder my kid. ah ah It's the amount he costs. did The kids cost too much these days, man. And, um and yeah, so, you know, the phone drops down. And I just I looked at him is the only time I've ever, ever kind of like, been a little bit aloof. I was like, I'm going to give him the cold shoulder, cold shoulder a little bit. And
00:04:14
Speaker
And I don't know how he took it, you know, because ah I could feel like he had a little bit of guilt. he was like trying to suck up to me and be nice and whatnot. But already i was like, okay, this is not the best time in the world to lose this. With everything going on, I'm like worried about work everything. shows and i don't know how this economy is going to go everything's going to be more expensive right now um man don't even need to tell people i'm just thinking everything this is calculation going inside my head and i'm like petrol's going up that's going to cause groceries to go up i'm already seeing it happen things are becoming more expensive and this is not what i needed right now with the phone falling down but it is and it's mad man when i picked it up
00:04:58
Speaker
My wife was like, is it salv ah salvageable? is that And i was like, as I picked it up and brought it it it, it had like little pieces falling off it like dust. You know, some parts of it had turned to dust. It was smashed. And yet through it, I have to give credit to the Apple iPhone, the phone rang. I think the motherboard is still fine. um Obviously, knew I had to replace it,
Smartphone Dependency and Societal Pressures
00:05:28
Speaker
right? Because we don't realize like our whole life is in this small rectangular object now. This happened to me a few months ago. And my screen had broken and I was getting lazy about changing it. And I had a backup cheap Samsung phone, an Android phone I use for traveling to Pakistan and whatnot. So in case it gets stolen, my travel phone. And I thought I have this, I can go few days, but not getting my phone ready. And I realized my whole life is in it, man. Like anything I needed. And it's sucked in with all the apps and all the banking stuff.
00:06:10
Speaker
Because now they made these changes here. It's so annoying. If I have to buy something online, sometimes i have to approve it through the app. And that's a whole thing. And I didn't have the apps on the other phone. And then had to log in and log out. And there's this whole UAE pass thing. There's this whole app to connect my residential ID with the banks and stuff. It was crazy, man. It just couldn't access so many things. At one point, I'm like, where's my where's where's how do I get cash out? I need to go back to living on cash. And so I knew from that time.
00:06:47
Speaker
This was about seven, eight months ago that I can't afford to not have a phone. And so I thought, what if I just switch? What if I just quit the iPhone? Yeah, I was, you know, for a moment, I had this crazy moment where I was like, you know what? This is maybe this is the this is a sign.
00:07:07
Speaker
from god for me to just quit the apple world you know and just go off and join a cheaper ecosystem or whatever like go back i've used samsung before there was life before an apple iphone and and then i looked up the stuff and the things i had to do and most of the good phones are pretty expensive anyway it's like this sucks you know what i did I looked at the price of the iPhone and I'm like, this is now this is ridiculous now.
00:07:36
Speaker
I mean, it is getting ridiculous. It's like a mortgage payment at this point. It's it's almost close to my rent if I bought a new Apple iPhone Pro. ah Right. what What is it? The 17 to 17 Pro. I don't know what it is right now, but it.
00:07:53
Speaker
it's it's It's up there. It's a mortgage payment. it's ah Why is it the price of a cheap Corolla? Like a second hand Corolla. like Why is this phone? Why am I carrying a luxury TV around? when you know We have all this technology, all this this phone that Chris Nolan could shoot a film with. you know And and all all I'm doing is just sending WhatsApp messages. And I don't even type OK. I type K.
00:08:21
Speaker
you know that's how oh why am i spending so much on this they've got us trapped haven't they like these iphones it's exhausting for me and i just kind of think about it i'm like how what what at what point did at what point will we realize that this is uh this is not this is just ridiculous I'm not just talking about the price of the phone itself, the whole ecosystem. I know like my iCloud has gone over um in price at least twice since I've been on that subscription. And it is just slowly, slowly inch it up and you just absorb and absorb and absorb until like everything is just about maintaining these subscriptions and stuff.
00:09:06
Speaker
And it's crazy. I don't know what to do about it. like But I also know changing it is so hard. And i I'm not going to lie. you know if they If they released a new model with a built-in therapist and a shawarma maker, I'd probably pay up. I just buy the next thing possible. And I don't know if it's I'm more inclined to do it in these developing ah developed kind of places like these places where people do people expect more. The base level is higher, you know. So, I mean, when I go back to Pakistan for like a holiday, I feel less conscious about a bunch of things. I don't really care as much. I know there are people looking at ah what you own and all that kind of everywhere in the world. But I feel like ah in those countries, there's a little bit more leeway. There's a little bit more forgiveness. There's a little bit more understanding that maybe someone just wants to save some money.
00:10:05
Speaker
Over here and in some places in the world, I feel like you can't get stuff done unless you have the right ah like gadgets or products or status or like you know at least the illusion of it. And that's why we end up ah owning the iPhone because, God forbid, i show up somewhere and I flash a cheap... ah I can't, it's not a lot going for me with the, with the, uh, what do you call it? With, um, with my skin color either. Right. So you kind of like dress up your status a bit more with the products that you own. And so I was like, Hey, uh, son's food or, and groceries or a new iPhone. And what I did was it was the first time I wasn't excited about buying a new phone. I always buy a new, uh,
00:10:58
Speaker
phone every four or five years or more if i can until the phone has either stopped working or is beyond repair or you know they they've messed it up so much uh so with with you know built in uh what do they call it where like the product starts failing over time so you are obsolete uh yeah there's this whole thing and i think i've heard like europe's trying to um Europe's trying to cut that out, but let's see if that travels around to the world. But you know that's what happens. like you i just Normally, I don't. And then when I do buy it, then I feel like I used it long enough to justify
00:11:40
Speaker
the expensive item that it was um at least that's what i do in my head but now having had to replace it sooner uh i just went i'm not doing a 17. i bought an older model and uh and i just went and even then it was more expensive than the new version of the model i had bought back a few years ago and i was like this is Even if I'm buying a two-year-old model, it's still more expensive than what I paid. like that's i Who's doing the math, man? is edie wouldn't
00:12:16
Speaker
Is anyone ever talking about this? Are we are we all like just kind of suffering in silence with this Apple stuff? I don't know. I just can't seem to quit.
00:12:27
Speaker
And i I worry about Look, and it's not fake, okay? So... Recently, I rented cars a couple of times because my car's in the garage, it's got a big problem. That's another thing on hold. Like literally when people say my life is falling apart, I think when I say that, I mean like my gadgets, everything around me is falling apart. In fact, my Mac, which is getting pretty old, every time I operate it, I'm like, I hope this is not the last time. But it's doing well. They stand the test of time, the good machines. But the other day I couldn't get the charger to work and I was like, oh no, this is broken. I didn't realize there was like a staple that had got stuck on the magnet bit in between and it was preventing the wire from the wire from like clicking properly. And when I removed it worked. But for a second I was like, oh man, that's another device gone. And everything in my head was just like, it's all my body's falling apart and my life is falling apart and the world is falling apart. That's the mode I was in. So this car thing, get like I had three different experiences. All right. So I use this app that allows you to rent a car for the day.
00:13:39
Speaker
And it's based on like you can just pick up the car that is parked near you. OK, so you you just go on the app and you decide, hey, I'll rent this one out from the options that are closed. But they only seem to have like two variations there's the ah higher end sort of mini suv or ah like a really cheap dinky mitsubishi outrage outrage i don't know how to spell uh pronounce that and ah so you just kind of pick whatever's close to you unless you want to walk like 20 minutes to the next car and um i tried looking for when i rented the mini suv it was a ford ah
00:14:19
Speaker
territory territory and um pretty decent car ah not a huge price difference um enough to like maybe go okay sure i'll save some money but when i took that out i was fine like you know it was regular me driving around a couple of times i rented the mitsubishi one because it was the closer one and uh and i was like hey man why am i paying higher prices so i was like let me try this and Both times I got treated really bad. Not so much just on the road. It was interesting by who. ah
00:14:59
Speaker
Both times I happened to stop at a gas station, right? And the gas attendant.
Perceived Status and Societal Biases
00:15:05
Speaker
but different people each time. This has happened to me twice now, very close to like within the last two weeks.
00:15:11
Speaker
Both times, the gas attendant treated me like shit. That was an eye opener for me because I was like, yo, what's going on? You know, this the last time it happened,
00:15:23
Speaker
the guy just kind of stood watching me and not coming up to serve me so i was like uh this is what sort of doesn't like just help me out you know uh and i'm looking at him he's looking at me and eventually he kind of strolls over and i just asked him hey how come you didn't like walk over first and he's like because you haven't put the car right and i'm like sure but isn't it your job to just come over and tell me sir you need to move the car forward a little bit Or something of that sort. So I know that it has to be done. And then we got into this back and forth where we're both not admitting. Like, I don't know if I, you know, what is it that AITMI, the whatever. And I don't know, maybe I was a jerk in that situation. But I genuinely was like, look, this has never happened to me before. was just touchy about the very earlier um incident as well. what very previous very you know This is the second time was happening so quick. So i I got into this argument with him and I'm like, listen,
00:16:29
Speaker
um All you have to do is just come up and tell me I need to move my car a little bit forward. How am I supposed to know? Otherwise, it's not parked right. And like I said, we went back forth. Eventually, i did get it. I said, listen, could you just get someone else? Because we're just arguing with each other. This other guy walks in and I and i i went and i did the whole. I was just so annoyed at that time. And i as I'm saying it out loud, I feel guilty slightly. But I just called a supervisor. I'm like, hey, listen. Can you please call the supervisor? And the guy's the second guy is trying to get out of He's like, sir, no, no, no. What happened? Tell me. I'm like, no, no. I need to speak to the supervisor. At that point, I was like, am I crazy? and And the supervisor eventually comes and I just asked him.
00:17:11
Speaker
I was very nice. Just for those people who think I was acting like Karen, I did not scream or shout or try to get the guy in trouble. I literally just asked the supervisor. I'm like, listen, I just need to understand.
00:17:22
Speaker
if this happens what is supposed to happen what is what am i supposed to do what is uh what what is your staff supposed to do and he said no no no your my staff was supposed to tell you uh was should have walked up to you immediately should have asked you to just move the car forward i'll have a chat with him and i was like all right at least i'm not crazy i just understood that we are racist to our own kind why are poor people treating poor people worse He probably assumed that I, and you know, both times that I got treated bad, the second I opened my mouth, they they kind of flinched. They realized ah this guy was not like, I don't know what they thought. Maybe I'm like a ah blue collar worker or whatever because of the car. I don't know. I don't know.
00:18:09
Speaker
But as soon as I opened my mouth, they realized, oh, this guy's doesn't, his his voice doesn't fit this car. I could see it on their faces. I swear to God, both times, not exaggerating, I'm not lying. I could tell. And the they flinched both times to go, oh shit, I should have been nicer to this one.
00:18:27
Speaker
ah My whole thing is, well, why? why why even even if i was just... um A blue-collar worker or or something. I don't know. I don't know what they were thinking. Just someone not rich or or not educated or whatever, right? Just one of their brown folks from the country and and and just treat me nice for that too, right? so So this stuff happens and you kind of notice it and then you go, yo, if I'm going to live in the place, upscale place and stuff, I got to look upscale. ah
00:19:04
Speaker
Like it's just... it's mad that the world is like that you know um and it just it just gives you status anxiety on top of everything that goes on in life like that's the last thing i need you know suffering having to be concerned about how i look over the years and stuff i don't um i i i bet i judge people too you know i probably look at people and i Maybe they're right. I mean, why would you not judge someone based on what they have, right? Like you would think, okay, if I'm selling something or I'm expecting, um I don't know, actually. I don't know. what why Why? Okay, I get like not...
00:19:48
Speaker
treating someone right. But this gas attendant thing, and I've had that happen at hotels and stuff too. i was just thinking, you're not selling me anything. um I'm going to buy whatever the other guy's buying. like It's not like I've shown up at a gas station and I'm going to buy nothing. ah You're selling petrol.
00:20:08
Speaker
You're not earning commission off it. I'm truly trying to understand why you would treat someone better than another in that situation. It really makes no sense to me. um And I wonder if I do the same. Like, do I have someone walk in and I look in look at them and go... ah they look ah hey They don't look rich enough and so I'll treat them accordingly. like Where does that come from? And I get rich people doing it. you know If someone rich was treating me like shit, I'd be like, that's expected. um
00:20:43
Speaker
they're just I'm talking about like some billionaire kind of dude just walking by arrogantly. I'd be like, yeah, he's just out of touch. She's out of touch with reality. like Who knows? But...
00:20:57
Speaker
You poor man. You poor lad me. So why are we doing this to each other? Why we should be treating each other with much more respect instead we're in this situation.
00:21:08
Speaker
So there you go. That's life, I guess. a I like to think about these things and i that's what happened. it's ah So now I have a new iPhone.
00:21:21
Speaker
That's an old model, but it's a new iPhone. And ah i'm I'm terrified of ever renting a small car again. and ah And I'm just watching my kid like a hawk, hoping he doesn't throw anything over the balcony. You know, that's ah that's been a week, people. All right.
00:21:43
Speaker
ah I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm going to catch you guys. I'll catch you guys in a week. a you or a I wish you a good week ahead. It's getting hot out there. Take care of yourself and speak soon.