Apple Presents: Reasons To Live...?

Innovative medicine and technology created by studying and applying science constantly discover answers to a more efficient life, while humanities and its subjective nature often raises more questions than answers because it studies what is created by human action and thought. This ambiguity, though extremely frustrating, is arguably far less frustrating than the dissatisfaction that comes from science attempting to answer life’s big questions. If the fundamental task of humanities is to interpret (Izenberg 2015), then studying humanities is rather unquestionably crucial to living life. Studying humanities evokes an insatiable hunger for truth, because it goes hand in hand with scrutinizing yourself. As an individual’s life cannot always be categorized into quantitative and qualitative facts, such scrutinization requires interpretation.

I don’t usually just sit down and watch television, but I remember being stopped in my tracks by a commercial last year. Bear with me because it turned out to be an Apple commercial for an iPad Air, but even Time found the need to write an online article about it, dubbing it as “moving stuff” (“Apple’s Latest Ad Is Probably Going To Give You Chills”). Most people around the world could recognize the Apple logo, and even want an Apple product for themselves, as it is one of the highest grossing corporation for personal technology. Disregarding the constant appearance of the iPad, the commercial consisted of shots that exhibits human capacity in science, art, and connecting with each other. The graphics are dandy and all, but the narrator sends a genuinely thought provoking message about the intrinsic value of humanities. There are scenes of our scientific achievements, in which Apple claims are only “noble pursuits necessary to sustain life”. Whereas passion fills us to create art, poetry, and romance. These passionate pursuits are described as “what we stay alive for”.

Experiencing this commercial came around halfway through my AP Literature course in high school. To be honest, my first dip into humanities was terrifying and repulsive. I often found myself feeling trapped in a labyrinth, desperately looking for answers but coming to dead end after dead end. Every work of literature, art, film, or poem I studied would ask the big questions in life: “What does it mean to be human?” “Where are we going?” “What is the meaning of life?” “Why are we here?” Then it comes back to me: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What do I want in life?” “What am I doing?” The class set us on the quest of finding the truths about human nature buried in classic works of literature. I was brought to my knees, begging question after question.

Far from AP Literature, science was my favorite subject in school because it always taught me something new about the world I live in. Science objectively presents undeniable facts and truths about the phenomena that occurs on Earth and within the people living on Earth. Science even dares to teach us about life beyond Earth. Of course at that point, the lines become blurred, generally dividing the population’s beliefs, because such attempts are at the unknown and undiscovered. Being used to this nature of question and answer, I often became frustrated and questioned why I was putting myself through this labyrinth. The questions that rose from studying humanities acted as oil that greased the gears within me. There is a soothing thrill that comes from interpreting the world and myself through my own eyes and with my own thoughts. I came to realize, and to be unnecessarily poetic and figurative, within a human being is also a universe, and science does not begin to indulge my hunger.

Often, people choose to avoid studying humanities as it ruthlessly forces the confrontation of excessive and daring thoughts. I completely abandoned the possibility of running away from my thoughts, almost religiously living by Bertrand Russell’s poem “Men Fear Thought”. I hadn’t understood why though, until the commercial simply clicked together the two. By no means does this mean an Apple commercial has changed my life, but what it ever so lightly grazed upon, brought me to realize how much value humanities has to me and my life. I continue to wander the labyrinth not only because Edgar Allen Poe was right in saying that the soul longs to vex itself (The Black Cat), but because I have concluded this as to why I am here. I take medication when I’m ill and I use a laptop with internet, because both allows me to continue to study humanities regardless of the presence of school.