To coexist in a world where human connection has never seemed more disconnected has challenges. I try to think back to a time before phones and instant messaging, yes there was digital video but that was more about capturing the moment. A fad right now is taking disposable photos and displaying them like a vintage trophy. Take a moment to digest what that means. Disposable photos are not all that old, but technology and the age of abundance evolve quickly. My generation grew up in the transition phase of adaptation to a digital world. We watched television stations not Netflix, and had home videos on DVD and photograph albums to flip through. My generation is barely old enough to have suffered a quarter-life crisis! The juxtaposition we see here is astounding, a 2023 trend captures the essence of "vintage" photos. This is teaching us that time is becoming a beloved artifact. If we spend too much of it engorged in the digital capture of it all we will miss the opportunity to live in the present.
Technology is taking over every inch of daily life. For better or worse we are in a committed relationship with something that only reads OUR emotions it can not process on a human level. Technology does not feel, instead, it predicts how to control OUR feelings with perfectly curated distractions. So I digress, but in reality, we are spending far too much time putting our efforts into a co-dependent relationship. Personally, I like to think I balance my time on technology well but I fall into the trap almost daily. Frequently I catch myself poisoned by the instant gratification and snap out of it, but I have my moments. Far more moments than I would like, when it comes to anything else I am pretty disciplined but with technology, I am a month to a flame.
I understand the addictive risk and aim to use technology for building myself up rather than breaking myself down. "Everything is okay in moderation" is something my family would like to say growing up, mostly because I had no self-control over sweets as a child. But I see the lesson fits in the case of technology, we have to accept it but we need to be mindful of the dependence and trust we put into it. The mantra of this generation will go down in history as everything you see on the internet is NOT ALWAYS TRUE! What is true is we do not have to accept our information being used to exploit or profit or succumb to the addictive nature, I believe as a society we are beyond that.
I enjoy turning to technology for information, and I am constantly curious for more...give me a topic and I will absorb a surprising amount of knowledge. I know technology has limits and I deviate from those sometimes, but I am mindful of my time. I have to consider something called bedtime revenge or sleep procrastination. I mean who can I blame besides myself, my family lives states away from me so my main form of communication is my phone. For me, I would say when I am on technology it usually means I am sacrificing something else. Not to mention, it feels less personal because I am able to pick and choose when to answer and when to respond; the instant messaging becomes less instant and more done at my own leisure.
Beyond it all I always disconnect when I am in a place to allow conversation. For example, dinners are a time of conversation, and I never use my phone at group meals. When I travel I try not to be redundant with the photos but I do snap a few. Isn't it sad to say we go on vacations to be with one another yet we spend more time taking pictures to share with our followers, most of them we don't even know!
Technology gets messy when it comes to having relationships of any kind. There is so much room for misinterpretation and an absence of personality in digital messaging and that is something I struggle with. I love technology for the safety elements it adds like my family can keep track of me in case anything happened. Technology essentially is a blanket of safety but it is just that, a blanket, and it can be taken off real fast. When we lose our phones we lose our identity, I know my family, friends and I don't have any phone numbers memorized. We depend on technology to get us to and from work most of the time, forget a map! Allowing constructive technology into our lives is a stubborn pill to swallow but it's something that resisting will only hurt us in the long run.
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