Tech news, I Want U Back [sic]

Posted by TQM5 on August 14, 2012 11:39 pm 6

On the radio during the drive home from work this afternoon I heard a news report about an iPhone 5 leak. Based on the technical specificity of the subject matter and my place in society as a male twenty-something graduate design student, you would presume I was listening to NPR. I was not. I am ashamed to admit, to the world and myself, that I was listening to Q94.

Q94 is the trashiest of the trashy pop music radio stations where I live. You do not tune in to hear good music. And you know this before you turn it on. This radio station is so hated by people within it's range that individuals printed stickers specifically for use on local stop signs. The message: "STOP listening to Q94". Yes, this is where I just got technology news.

Turning it on (my broken heart hoping to hear CRJ's ballad of the ages "Call Me Maybe") I was greeted with a 15 second news bulletin. This is the moment where Ryan Seacrest or some lesser personality tells you about a Kardashian snafu punctuated by a gratuitous pop song chiming in before they finish their sentence.

The news, and I quote, loosely, "Leaked photos of the iPhone 5 motherboard , they say it is due in September." My mind froze, left woefully unprepared for the opening salvo of Cher Lloyd's grating and linguistically offensive "Want You Back ft. Astro." A pop music station. Just reported on. The chip inside of. An unreleased phone.

Mind blown.

Offense was the first emotion that flooded into the tattered remnants of my thought process. They took my thing. If every pop-obsessed twelve year old girl and their chauffeur parent knows about the latest tech rumors within forty-eight hours I can't get social credit for being the smart guy that knows about technology before you do.

But the more I think about it, the more I see a trend instead of a moment. Technology news isn't being stolen by the popular media; technology news is the popular media. Not entirely just yet, but to the readers who want politics and pop culture out of their favorite technology blog: they cannot be separated now. Technology is our culture.

I'm glad I've got a news source that knows what's up without including the trashy pop. Well, mostly.

Images: Tumblr, Mac Rumors