The internet is to me, the greatest invention ever! It connects people instantly, gives access to any type of information, makes our lives easier in many aspects. It has a huge impact in our modern society. No one can even imagine a life without internet nowadays. Like it became as indispensable as water or food. It has become an integral part of our daily existence. However, the better it is on one hand, the worse it affects our lifestyles on the other hand. We all agreed that the internet is great but it’s also extremely dreadful and terrible. For all the positive change the digital revolution has brought about, it’s also done some serious harm. Big companies such as Google, Amazon or Facebook have killed hundreds of thousands of jobs as everybody might know and they raised serious concerns about mass surveillance and our right to privacy. And they have made us unhappier, lonelier and more envious than ever before.
Sure, it is nice to order something on Amazon now and have it delivered tomorrow or yes, it is great to stay in touch with our friends/family on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Whatsapp etc- no matter how far away are they! But let’s be honest: do all of these make us happier, more fulfilled or richer? I look around every single day, watching people holding tight their smart devices….it seems to me like a chaotic movement of crowds walking with their heads down not paying attention to anything else but them. It doesn’t matter the age, the level of education, the profession or any other kind of stereotypes that society use to describe our status- we are completely hooked on this virtual world.
Everybody keeps their eyes on the phone even when they cross the streets or climbing steps- in or out a subway station- while they are pushing strollers or they walking their babies….oh, and of course while taking selfies…and so on. Everybody is connected to something -being to preoccupied doing whatever in their own world. We are loosing the sense of reality or all our senses, generally speaking we are putting our lives ( and others! ) in danger, and it is not such thing like making our problems another people responsabilty!
Internet actually is turning us into sad, lonely, egocentric, selfie-obsessed people. Walking as zombies left and right — like with no reason – the only purpose seems to be our phone attached to our hand and our eyes permanently on it.
Therefore, don’t get me wrong : enjoying the filtered images and perfectly curated moments that are part of our everyday digital lives is fun but there is nothing better than experiencing something for yourself- in real time. Life moves pretty fast, so if you don’t stop and look every once in a while, you could miss it.
Twit, like, share, tag and post to your heart’s content- just be sure to stop and look around every now and then. And keep in your mind that the internet tech companies know everything about us and they are selling our data to advertisers, surveillance firms and even to the government. So l could not help but wonder : why don’t we keep our heads up instead, paying attention to our surroundings and put the phones away because every time when we post a photo, like a page or write a status update we are in fact, working for free to make the world’s most powerful companies as valuable as they already are. And what about us? We are poor addicted things – lonely , dehumanized and sad. Let’s just think twice before anything (it is an interesting description on Wikipedia for the so called “smartphone zombie”….would we like to become one???)
( as another reference l would recommend the documentary “The great hack”- available on Netflix to better understand how these tech companies use and abuse our data and personal information )
Express Yourself 