technology slavery

I like to think of myself as someone who is not necessarily attached to technology, but there are studies that prove that I am not alone in thinking this. But the facts prove it: we're all online. When it comes to all forms of addictive behavior, no one individual thinks of themselves as being personally addicted. We find it very easy to see that others are, and can easily recognize the signs of it. But not in ourselves. I suppose I am one of those people. I enjoy my cell phone. Not the device itself, because it's a basically prehistoric hunk of brick that is the bain of my existence. But I like texting. I like being connected, wherever I am. I enjoy the ability to converse at all times. I have found myself wondering, what would life be like without this? While it is a tool of epic convenience, it is also something of a figurative ball and chain. What about the times you don't want to be found? Or the times when you're reading, or having a deep conversation with a friend? Buzz, buzz, buzz. Your phone vibrates, your concentration is lost. You can't even concentrate on things the same as you used to. Our brains are on a constant multitask, because even if we are just sitting and reading, our phone is also on our lap active in multiple conversations at a time. We're sharing our brain too much, when sometimes it just needs to be focused on a single, individual task. It's not fair, really, to any of the things we're doing – our conversation gets only a part of us, our book only gets partially ingested, our television shows only half way seen. It's something that has come a part of our culture so fast, and already seems nearly impossible to imagine without. The idea of not having texting when I want to meet up with someone, of having to actually call them, it seems so very tedious. Why would I want that when it's so much easier to....buzz, buzz, buzz. What was I saying?

I've had assignments like this in classes in highschool and I've always enjoyed them. Looking around the room, I always feel almost peevishly superior to everyone who looks a little white-knuckled at the idea of shutting off their phone for – gasp – an entire day. Then again, I chose an alternate piece of technological equipment, so I am no better. Since I don't watch television anyway, I gave up facebook for the project. Oh, facebook. The cultural phenomenon. How did you even make friends without it? It seems, now, the natural way to break through being acquaintances with someone to actually being their friend. See that cute guy in class, want to know more about him? It's as easy as figuring out his last name and internet stalking him. Even the word 'stalking' has lost its most negative connotations, and now merely means a friendly page viewing. This fills me with dread at the future of human communications, because it's already gotten this terrible this quickly. What can this mean for our children and grandchildren? What can this mean for US in a decade? Even our language has begun to degenerate to forms of abbreviations and non-words.

My day without facebook goes as follows.

Morning: Wake up, eat. Begin laundry. Sit down and read four chapters of current book (City of Thieves, Benioff). Attend to laundry. Shower.

Afternoon: Eat more cereal. 2^nd load of laundry. Two more chapters of current book. Talk to mom about tattoos. Walk away feeling cantankerous after unsuccessful conversation with mother about tattoos. Go online and check VCU e-mail. Have no email. Hang up laundry. Watch 'The Road'. Buzz buzz buzz. Hide phone under pillow, give undivided attention to movie. Feel disappointed that the movie was not as good as the book. Eat popcorn. Text.

Evening: Six chapters of book. Write soundtrack for FI class. Feel angry that soundtrack is piece of garbage. Re-write soundtrack. Feel equally disgusted. Unable to rewrite. Mind doesn't work. Read two chapters. Look at soundtrack. Buzz buzz buzz. Stare at soundtrack. Accept defeat. Check agenda, do some readings for class. Brush hair. Stare at wall. Listen to song obsessively 12 times in a row. Become bored with song. Eat chicken. Ignore phone call from someone I don't like very much but like too much to tell them I don't like them. Pass out during texting.

As you can easily tell from reading above, my day without facebook clearly lacked nothing. So, I guess the question is: why? Why do I still use it? Why do I care?

As a wise man once said, the things we own end up owning us. I believe this is true for technological services and devices. As someone who carries this knowledge, I am still not free – because I still use the services. The only way to be truly free is to be truly unattached, and yet we are all too scared/lazy/lethargic/bored to care enough. This is the sadness that is our humanity.