As I sit here, pressed for time, I wonder what I should write. I honestly have no clue. I want to say some relevant, and something relateable -- but I feel I've already done that in my last article. Is journalism about expressing how we feel or is it more about giving others a voice? Is it about informing the public? Revealing the truth. Social media is quite powerful. Just imagine all of the data we consume each day, subconsciously scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat stories; always consuming some new type of media, some new information. It's really as if we live through it, to some extent. I've seen a countless number of people at parties so focused on capturing the moment instead of living it. So focused on snapping the perfect photo instead feeling the rhythym of the music.
We have become so hyperaware of what others think of us, of how others view us, that we work to provide them with an image we want them to see. Our reputations are important, no doubt. However, focusing on this too much can greatly alter how we live our lives. Have you ever wished that, for just a day, there was no technology? No cell phones, no computers, no iPads, no cash registers, no lights. Nothing. What would we all do in a waiting room? What would we do, sitting in class before the teacher arrives? It is so often that we revert to our phones for comfort and security. I do it all the time. But I can tell you, it's also nice to just put the phone, tablet, computer screen or whatever technological device down. To turn it off. To look up, look around. Technology is incredible. It is innovative, life saving, life altering, and complicated.
Sometimes I wonder what we'd all be doing if our phones weren't our shields; if they did not exist. What would our topic of discussion be? Would we even know how to have one? It's easy to retract inwards, especially when we are used to it. But life isn't as fun this way. What has happened to asking someone out on a date, face to face? Or enduring the awkward silences and working through them instead of reverting to our cell phones? I'm not saying we don't have conversations -- we do.
They're just different. Life is different with technology. Sure, as a millenial I've grown up with it, but I've also seen the rapid progression of technology. The rapid desocialization of people. The times I used to play outside with chalk and spy on the mailman with my friends have been replaced with toddlers, unable to form full sentences, teaching themselves how to operate an iPad. Submerging themselves into a world of fascinating technology and isolation.
