by Jasmin Carroll

Is there more to this smaller-is-better obsession the world has with technology than meets the eye? Sure, it was a good idea to go from the huge cell phone with the battery bag to something a little more manageable. But, what is with the scaling down process that happens every six months to our gadgets?

Our technology is losing more weight at an alarming rate than all of young Hollywood put together. This need for sleek and small has us constantly playing catch up like little children, but dropping grown up money that some of us don't have, and those of us who do, seemingly have nothing better to do with it.

We've gone beyond mobile convenience in all of our technological necessities - including cell phones, computers and iPods (what is a walkman, right?), to an informal competition with each other to consume the latest and the greatest in technology. We owe it to ourselves to at least know why slimmer is better. It's not like you can find your cell phone at the bottom of your bag when it rings, or even see the letters on your iPod display.

So do we not all agree that there is something attractive about the fragility of objects? That sturdy and dependable has given way to the novelty of "look I can hold it in the palm of my hand?" Though strength is necessary, it can never come close to the appeal of the delicate. Delicacy gives the illusion of the highest value. A jewel, the petals of a flower, a skinny girlfriend, or cell phone for that matter - all objects whose value are superficial and have no way to fulfill their promise of superiority in the end.