I am a newcomer to the iPhone world. Certainly, it is preferable to previously incessant struggles with a dinosaur Nokia; and considering all the options for personalization, my iPhone is able to reveal a lot about me. About 85% of my Notes, for instance, are reminders of details I found notable about certain events or places—like “Remember: Jackson actually sided with Webster!” or “Why doesn’t Banana Republic have a more politically correct name?” The most frequently visited page on my Internet history is www.realclearpolitics.com, and a photograph of Robert McNamara with President Kennedy currently stands as my beloved lock-screen wallpaper. I also have a playlist just for washing dishes, chock-full of pieces like Thais from Meditation by Jules Massenet, Hero by Regina Spektor, and, of course, Vivaldi’s Winter.
A browse through my camera roll will undoubtedly uncover an absurd amount of world map screenshots. How else would I know whether or not South Sudan classified as a landlocked country before the next Model United Nations conference? Embracing the mind-set of a very atypical teenage girl, I maintain an online subscription to Stratfor global intelligence articles. The last, and most telling, nerdy facet on my phone is my New York Times app; I review the ensuing mobile news updates almost religiously. Yet, the best part of this entire arrangement is that whenever I misplace my phone, anyone who knows me in the slightest is always able to return it.