RING. RING. *Swipe*
It is 7:00 A.M. I was woken up by the alarm on my iPhone 6. I swipe the screen to the right and punch in my passcode to be met by brightly colored applications on my home screen. Before I even realize the fact that I woke up and thank God for staying alive through my sleep, I am resetting an alarm and making commands through a glass screen. Naturally, the next step is for me to open Instagram and scroll for 15 minutes before I even use the restroom. It is almost as if my biological clock has adapted to the point to where I don’t need to use the restroom until after my “morning scroll”. I continue to check the weather, the news, emails, and address any other notifications before I get dressed. I go on with my day responding to emails, updating accounts, syncing settings, and proceed to end my day by plugging in my phone and setting an alarm.
The first and last thing I touched today…was my phone. The beginning and the end, the Genesis and the Revelation of my day was my iPhone 6. That scares me.
Technology isn’t a bad thing. In fact, technology is a great thing. The reality is that our world revolves around it and can not and will not function without it. It is of the upmost importance to us, even though it may carry a few negative side effects. I’m not necessarily worried about the effects of today’s technology, but I am concerned with my obsession with it.
There is a distinct difference between an obsession and an addiction. An addiction is when you don’t feel satisfied unless you use a particular substance or engage in a particular activity, while an obsession is when ritualistic routines become a part of everyday life. Obsessions usually stem from fear. We may have an obsession because we fear what may happen if we don’t carry out that routine, or we may fear missing out on something. We fear missing out on the latest news or social media posts. We fear not responding to text messages or emails because we hate that cursed red dot with a number popping up on our apps. We are obsessed with efficiency (Henry David Thoreau is rolling in his grave). The very thing we feared has become a reality. We fear a lack of control, and the result is that we are no longer in control. We are no longer the user. Our obsession with efficiency has backfired. Our technology is in control, and we are being used by our fear. We are controlled by our fear of inefficiency. We are controlled by our fear of not being in control.
Don’t worry, I don’t think Siri is the Terminator. I don’t think Apple or Google or any type of machine is going to take over the world, but I do think that our fear of missing out and not controlling our daily routine is the cause for our obsession, and it is all to pursue this idea of “connection”. We use Facebook to connect ourselves with our friends. We use financial apps to connect ourselves with our money. We use calendars to manage our schedules and stay connected with our events for the week. We don’t want to be disconnected all of that. The problem with the concept of “connection” is that we aren’t actually connected to people, we are connected with devices and accounts, but it will all be okay. We just need to find a way to discern how to use technology without the obsession. I don’t want to go to bed connected, I want to be the connector. I want to be the user. I don’t want to love technology, I want it to love me. In other words, tech is useless without a user. I am the user.
