Digital Dystopia: overhyped term or today's reality?
Sit with me on my living room sofa with a full cup of coffee to have a little "damn we in an age of development" oldie conversation
What is the first thing you do when you wake up? Check your phone. No judgment here, I do the same. How can’t I? I need to turn off my alarm, which is blaring. I need to text my boyfriend good morning, need to start playing music right away so I can motivate myself enough to reach the kitchen and brew a cup of coffee.
My phone and social media apps remain constant from day to night. Ever since I got my first smartphone, I have never been off it. Even the two-week break I took from Instagram once years ago, had me switching to apps like Tumblr or X or just opening and closing YouTube at times.
I am a digital marketer, and my job and expertise (I like to say expertise sounds cool) today are fully dependent on these platforms. Even my bachelor’s degree, Bachelors of Digital Media and Communication, dealt majorly with social media and its practical purposes. I have read and written my fair share of academic papers detailing the way social media was weaponized during pertinent events of the world like the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, the 2016 & 2022 Philippine elections, and the 2019 CAA protests in New Delhi, to name a few. (I have added some links to give a brief idea about them if you’re interested, but I would highly suggest doing a deep dive on them!)
Our lives have become intrinsically involved with not just social media but our phones and technology as well. Other than taking time out to visit a friend or call them we just reply to an Instagram story. However, at the same time, technology helps us stay connected to our friends even when either of us moves away physically. It does make me wonder though, how to make the best use of these technologies to strengthen human connections and not take relationships for granted because Facebook will remind you of your mom’s birthday anyway (just an example I have never forgotten mom’s birthday I feel like that should be said).
The pros and cons of social media can be and have been discussed a fair amount. I won’t go into that debate here. All I can say is, that I don’t believe social media or technology is inherently bad, (unsupervised yes it can be) but I wonder what we’re all doing with the time that’s supposedly left as these inventions make our lives easier.
How many times have we picked up a book instead of our phones while the dishwasher is on? As someone on dish duty through the pandemic, I can assuredly answer, maybe never.
I saw the movie CTRL recently and I was on a call with my mom discussing it. She remarked how she thought the ending could’ve been better (skip some lines if you don’t want a spoiler). For everyone who has seen it or just wants to keep reading, the movie ends with Nella going back to the AI that ruined her life at first.
I think that was the only viable ending the movie could’ve possibly had. We can’t stay away from these so-called “evils” because today if you want to be a part of the world, you need to be on the phone, be in the conversation, and shout out into the digital space. Do you even exist in the 21st century if you’re not constantly shouting at something or critiquing the world on X?
Today’s little peak into my brain is my rambling thoughts about our world’s increasing reliance on technology. We all are getting well aware of how the “cookies” are being collected, data being sold, social media and its harmful effects, and biased news coverage. They all seem to be a fraction of the many issues of the world we don’t think about daily else paralysis would possibly hit.
Not to sound old, but I remember the times I used to get English TV Shows from a shop in my pen drive just so I could watch the entirety of Friends, How I Met Your Mother, and Sherlock. Sherlock was accidentally given to me without subtitles, had to watch that three times before I fully grasped the British accent. Me and my sister used to record the songs from FM on our phones, a tiny yellow Nokia phone to listen to them at any time. I remember trying to explain Netflix to my parents and how I desperately needed it later on.
The jump in the past 5 years to how comfortable we have grown with technology is commendable. My grandma attends her yoga classes and her satsang online today.
Are we saving time though? Or is this whole process just a way for us to keep stretching ourselves more thin? At first, we only had other humans to compete with but now we have various AI tools and advanced technology to compete with as well.
What do you think? Are we moving in the right direction? How do you monitor your time and activities in the digital space, if you do?
Thank you loves for reading today’s little monologue. If this reads like an incomplete piece, it’s because there are incomplete thoughts in my brain about this. I would love to hear your two cents on it.
Can’t forget to remind you all to stay dumb stay sexy, and use that little device in your hand to love, create, connect, and explore. What good is development if we don’t make the best out of it today?
this is what i need, i as in someone who dislikes reading most books, subtack is a cool application to read right? while i was reading about social media here, all the school debates on social media popped in my head and how we used to prep for the debate prev night, fuck all you guys who claim they went to libraries to jot down notes on cons of social media.
said that i love privacy, there are types of people types of social media applications, it's been 10 plus years with all the main stream applications, we are already calculating application that suits us, lmao fuck me for ranting out point zero diplomacy on social media but this is the best first comment on this article of my fav gurl isha, tf you guys still reading this??? hit back twice and subscribe alrrrrrr then.
impressive, lots to think about 👏👏