Do you also continue to find yourself struggling with addiction? Not to alcohol or opioids, sugar or fast food for that matter. I mean with technology. Your phone, your laptop, your television. Staring blankly at these things; swiping up, down, left, right; pulling your notifications to see who texted, or what app beckoned for your attention. Is this not dreadful to you?
I noticed my life getting incrementally but proportionally better the less I used technology. Little things like not putting my AirPods in to go for a walk made the activity more enjoyable. I was there. I…was there. My Self was ignited. Floods of thoughts blasted through the metaphorical mental dam. I was.
Cute philosophical notions aside, I do find it bizarre how unable most people are in putting their bloody phone away. Is this the symptom or the cause of something? Perhaps both? Could this be the reason why making eye contact, especially among young people, is a lost skill? Is this why attention spans are so short, so shot? Does this explain the core of consumer culture, where we’re always looking for what’s next, what’s new, what’s not-mainstream-yet-but-about-to-be? Yes x3.
I refer to this digital annoyances as ulterior noise. Cyberspace in its current form — Internet Gods, please let Web3 be the cure for our digital madness — is only good for warping our minds in destructive (aforementioned) ways. For this reason, I have all my notifications silenced, other than Slack and Messages. No email client exists on my smartphone. No colours exist on my device; it’s greyed out (I do turn on the colours whenever my crush sends me selfies because..duh). I have turned my smartphone into a dumbphone, the tutorial of which can be found here. I dislike being prodded, poked, beckoned, hijacked, disturbed, by meaningless digital drudgery. It makes me less human, to be frank. There’s nothing on Youtube or Netflix but an endless void of distractions. Social media has become the digital equivalent of radiation for the mind. Generative AI has corrupted what’s left of the Internet. X is a dumpster fire of political and AI-generated nonsense.
These platforms and devices do not help me become a better artist or creator. Distractions kill my focus, not enhance it. Augmenting, in the 21st Century, must be prescribed as “using technology less, not more.” People may immediately shout “You Gen Z Luddite!” not realizing the oxymoronic nature of this statement. I think it rather absurd that we commend those (particularly Gen Z and Alpha) for multi-tasking on many devices but ostracize the ones who put the phones down and stand up straight with their shoulders back. (Side note: I think we will have a HOST of neck and back problems in the coming decades from our constant craning of our necks.)
I was in discussion with one of my good friends, Jamie, and we both remarked how we dislike using technology for everything. Cliche incoming: we prefer to use technology, and not let technology use us.
Furthermore, I brought up how strange it is to be in a cafe, for example, and not have my phone. I still find this setting odd because I have no clue where to put my eyes or my hands. Just…stand straight and look ahead? What about when I’m waiting for my beverage, do I just pick a spot and look at it? I do not understand this behaviour, and frankly this is literally because I am Gen Z — I have never known a world that did not consist of sticky digital tech.
I have become quite sanctimonious, if I may be brutally honest, quand je suis en ville. I scoff at those who walk around glued to their device. I feel bad, really. They are so plugged into the matrix; a matrix that not only doesn’t care about them, but wants to addict them, hijack their minds, plunder their banks, and turn them into an automaton. I do not believe a Neo exists in the individualistic sense. Enlightenment may have to come from within. Just like with nicotine in the twentieth century, and alcohol in the 21st, things that were grandfathered into society may have the spotlights shown on their ugly consequences. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take a century for people to realize their dreadful co-existence with ulterior noise.