MS. SIRI SUSAN
Today the world found out what Siri looked like. For those
of you non Apple people I’m sure you’re thinking who the h*ll is Siri?
Basically it’s the voice assistant of the iPhone 5 (although apparently it started with the Iphone 4S) and I’m assuming will be for the 5S, T, U,
V, W….I kid, but actually, it could be very close to the truth knowing Apple. Anyway, you can command Siri to do just about anything but clean your
house [I truly hope they are working on that in Silicon Valley cause then I would wait out in a tent to buy a phone]. Then again, Siri never seemed to understand me, so I couldn’t get her to
do much of anything (my phone was stolen, so I am currently Siri-less).
And of course with this revelation everyone is weighing in as to how this
woman’s image lives up to
their expectations or idea of what they thought Siri would look like.
I have to be honest, I always assumed Siri was computer
generated. I figured it’s a high tech phone manufactured by uber tech geeks, it
seemed like a normal assumption to make. But as it turns out, Siri, aka Susan Bennett, is a middle aged woman that has
been working in the voice over field since the 1970's and lives in Suburban
Atlanta. But as you can imagine, this is not the part of the story that interests
me. What I found interesting was people’s reactions to the news once the image
in their head was given an actual face. It was almost, dare I say it, a let down. And
this is the funny thing when one’s imagination is introduced to reality, it’s
like meeting Mary Poppins at the bus stop and realizing she’s just an
overworked nanny in black tights, a funny hat (& carrying a very functional bag btw) that wants better pay. In short, one's imagination is so much jazzier.
Not to mention, I’ve always found it much more satisfying to have an image
in my head that stays just that, my image. And I’m pretty secure in thinking
that everyone concurs. Think about it, the man on the bus commanding
Siri to type his most intimate texts is secretly hoping that she looks like Megan
Fox, not his second grade school teacher. It’s the mystery and suspense factor that is never met that we find so satisfying, and the fact that we, and we
alone are in control – for once. To date, Apple (has wisely) not confirmed that
Ms. Bennett is the voice of Siri, but voice experts have weighed in saying that
it’s 100% certain that she is – ‘experts’ are such buzz kills.
As for me, I shall go on thinking Siri is some inanimate
technological creation of some tech geek sitting in Silicon Valley who
resembles Matthew Broderick (since War Games, I can only picture techies
looking like this).
Happy Friday.