As technology surges forward at an exponential pace, it has become reasonable to expect groundbreaking innovations seemingly every month. It’s difficult to believe that, just a decade ago, humans “survived” with nothing more than phones, computers, and television sets — all of which have since progressed in their own right, and are almost indistinguishable from their counterparts of the past. But 2016 sees people live with wearables like the Apple watch and the YodelUP, witness reality in a whole new way with simple virtual reality products from Google Cardboard on up to Oculus Rift, and…. check social media while surfing?
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If Samsung does once again have its way, high-tech surfboards will indeed be a thing. Samsung recently debuted the concept of its Galaxy Surfboard in a three minute-plus ad featuring Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina, in which the surfboard appears as a black, ultra-sleek device that a Samsung Galaxy S7 phone can slide into. With a phone connected to it, the Galaxy Surfboard can provide its user with notifications — in the form of Twitter updates or text messages, for example — but, more importantly, can inform surfers of “wind direction, height and frequency of waves.” For all intents and purposes, the Galaxy Surfboard will allow surfers to partake in their favorite activity while not missing a beat in their social lives and staying up-to-date on the nature of the sea.
The concept (since the product isn’t actually a thing just yet) of the Galaxy Surfboard represents another chapter in the story that is seeing technology take over twenty-first century society, especially in ways that are entirely unnecessary. Do surfers really need to stay in the now while out riding waves? Of course not, but technology has come to be defined as a universal vehicle with which the human race can exceed all expectations placed on it, for better and for worse. The Galaxy Surfboard will find itself barreling along the same grain as expensive household drones and hoverboards — it’s a gadget almost entirely bred out a desire to use technology for the sake of using it, but will find a niche in society nonetheless.
When it hits the market, people will inevitably buy the Galaxy Surfboard because, well, there are people out there to buy everything. And despite not being the most radical invention of the twenty-first century, Samsung’s technological thruster is certainly exciting enough to appease a sizable portion of the surfing community.