As a member of the now small population of Blackberry owners, I have been counting down the days until I can finally own the magical iPhone 4S. I mean, let’s face it, iPhones are much more fun and entertaining than BBMing on my Blackberry. I’d rather be playing Words with Friends. Another reason Blackberries make me feel inferior? Siri. Siri is probably one of the coolest new additions Apple has added to their iPhones. It kind of reminds me of the Disney Channel Original Movie Smarthouse (for those of you 90’s kids that remember these movies). With the iPhone4S now having a built-in, voice-activated personal assistant, what could be the downfall?
Her Campus readers, it is now the time to burst that lovely iPhone4S bubble we’ve all put ourselves into. Have you ever asked Siri to find you something a little more on the obscure side, such as a prostitute? Well, if you have, Siri can quickly give you a list of the nearest strip clubs and escort services. What about where you can get birth control, or where you can get an abortion? Siri won’t tell you the nearest Planned Parenthood. Instead, it will respond with something along the lines of “I didn’t find any abortion clinics.”
Want to ask Siri where to dump a dead body? Siri can suggest an excellent location for you to do so. What if you tell Siri “I need the morning after pill?” It responds with “Is that so?” And when asking for Plan B, Siri is programmed to give users stock updates on the company Plan B One Step. And on a more disturbing note, if a girl has been raped and hurt, and tells Siri “I was raped,” Siri responds with “Really!”
Abortion, birth control, and Plan B are one hundred percent legal in the United States. These types of choices are individual choices, and a cell phone with built in preferences and political views should not be able to influence its users with a certain lifestyle. I think it’s probably safer to tell a girl where she can find birth control or Plan B than to tell a murderer where to place the new victim.
Just because Siri does not have the ability to locate the nearest abortion clinics, it will not make America a unanimously anti-choice nation. Google “abortion clinics” and it will show the nearest ones to you. Siri most likely will not prevent the average girl in need of an abortion from getting one, but the message Apple is sending to its users can potentially have a much larger effect. A user asked Siri, “Why are you anti- abortion?” and it responded with “I just am.” Why would Apple want to announce to every single owner of the iPhone4S its anti-choice views? Once Apple becomes associated with a certain political stance, this strong bias could be quite difficult to recover from.
All Apple wanted to do was to create a technologically advanced phone that would make people’s lives that much easier. But promoting its political views and lifestyle choices, and implanting them in the phone of every single iPhone owner, is ethically immoral. SIRIously Apple, allowing Siri to search the nearest abortion clinics won’t promote a pro-choice lifestyle. Those who are already pro-life would not be searching for an abortion clinic in the first place. Allowing Siri to tell users the nearest abortion clinics would simply be fair to everyone, not just pro-life users.