Are Our Cellphones Looking Like People?

This could seem completely crazy, and I do not blame anyone for thinking that. Even I think this is a little crazy, but I want to bring it up anyway because it crossed my mind. What I am talking about is the rhetoric of cellphones. Why do people want one type of phone over the other? What makes cellphones appealing?

Sitting here, looking at my phone that people often criticize me for owning when I had the chance to get a smartphone, I'm thinking about the features, and I think that the features popular/desired phones have are comparable to features people stereotypically find attractive in people.

For example, people generally like phones that do things for them efficiently, just as they can be attracted to a person who does not put a huge workload on them. A smartphone matches up with a person who is smart and can find out a lot of information or knows a lot of information. The traits align.

Another trait the phones and people have is a connection, no pun intended. Touch screens are becoming popular now, and they create a connection between the user and the phone. The phone is no longer a removed object, but something people can hold in their hand and feel attached to, just as they can feel attached to a person.

People like the look of a brand new phone because it does not have scratches, dents, nicks, or cracks. Models, movie stars, and people who grace the covers of magazines look this way too (at least with some image correcting!). Either way, the fact that they don't have blaring wrinkles or skin imperfections makes them perceived as attractive. We look at phones the same way. We want a phone that looks nice on the outside.

Another similarity is the "health," modern-ness, or current-ness of the phone which relates to how modern or with-the-times people are. Uninformed or extremely old-fashioned people are not what we see society promoting as an image of beauty. There are people who have the most up-to-date clothes, shoes, and accessories. Similarly, we are drawn to technology that is the most up-to-date.

The last major similarity I would like to call upon is the slenderness of the phones. Who wants a giant, bulky 1990s-style cellphone anymore? Nobody I know. People are attracted to the smooth, thin phones that they can easily slide in their back pockets or purses. Images trying to portray beauty also show slender people, not typically overweight people.

Seeing these very basic traits align, I have to ask, do you think people are subliminally persuaded into buying certain phones or even products in general because they possess traits we are accustomed to seeing as beautiful? Are the traits society deems beautiful spread across the board between people, products, etc.?