Black Friday has come and gone, which means that holiday wish lists have been written, edited and completed.

A recent study from the Consumer Electronics Association will make Santa’s job much easier, giving him only one product to fill stockings with this year: the iPad. According to the study, iPads and other types of tablet computers are the most popular gift Americans hope to receive this season or, rather, the only item for sale.

Last year, happiness and world peace were at the top of the list, followed by clothes and money. This year, world peace and happiness were demoted to numbers two and three. So give us an iPad this year and we will be mostly fulfilled.

Our country’s heavy desire for technology shows us how we pursue happiness. It’s not about the simple things in life or the affection of friends and family anymore. Obtaining the material items that give us instant gratification is what makes people happy and allows us to depreciate our feelings and society.

Even with the overwhelming amount of supporters of the Occupy movement and ongoing international conflict, nothing outweighs or distracts us like an iPad. It is no shock that a 10-inch piece of metal technology is what our country is currently obsessed with. However, is it abnormal that we value a piece of technology more than the timeless values of happiness and peace? It’s a sad reality. The past year’s news headlines have been filled with nothing but the latest political scandals, economic downturns, civilian revolts and celebrity divorces or suicides. When considering them, world peace and happiness should be in high demand. But sadly, they’re just second best.

The demand for iPads is so high that fraudulent iPads are flooding the Internet on popular personal-selling sites like eBay and Amazon. These fake iPads have counterfeit Apple logos. The saying goes “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” and for Apple it further proves how hungry society is for these tablet computers.

As the study suggests, world peace is just second place to the almighty iPad. With the abundance of seasonal parties, secret Santas and festivities, who has time for world peace? Not even beauty pageant contestants have time to think about preaching world peace during the holiday season.

It doesn’t matter to us that Russia recently blacklisted a number of U.S. officials from entering the country. There is no need to be bothered by such grave world events when iPads are just a mere $500 away. Pakistan’s boycott of an Afghanistan conference is nowhere near as important as getting that iPad for the holidays.
We are truly sick in a contagious technology epidemic. If money could buy happiness and if Apple stuck a logo on world peace, we’d be obsessed with it, buy it and be fulfilled until the newest Apple product debuted.

— Caroline Nachazel is a junior studying communication and journalism. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.