There is a lot of nonsense in the mainstream press these days and this account of Apple by Julian Lee, the deputy editor of the National Times online is one. It's thesis that Apple's "technology is making us introverted" highlights the decline of journalism at Fairfax.

Lee says:

Those among us who have an iPod, Macbook, iTouch, iPhone or iPad have surrendered our powers of concentration and free time to this cult, not to mention our personal data. An entire generation will only be able to walk into its future so long as Apple holds its hand. They will only be able to commune with each other via their devices and a shared experience will only be truly shared through Facebook or Digg. Who talks with strangers on the buses today? You can't flirt with someone on a train if they are plugged into a two-hour shuffle of easy listening.

There's a reason why Apple put the ''i'' into its products and it has nothing to do with information. It cannily recognised that in a world of globalised products the consumer yearned to be recognised as an ''individual''. Apple's candy-coloured iMac computers of the mid-1990s played to that and from there it flowed through to the music service iTunes that lets you upload and customise your music, your films, your contacts, your life. Even the TV screen has been shrunk to a neat little portable device - the iPad - that enables you to slink off into a corner and watch it on your own. And how we have fallen for it. We have become slaves to Apple's brand.

It also ignores the way the Apple, or rather Jobs, revolutionized the content market for music, newspapers and magazines.