Orange Man back.
I wanted to get this out yesterday but Turkey had me running around.
Here we are, in 2022, where individuals in the public arena are being allowed back on a platform they were banned from and my society is furious.
Me? Im glad you asked.
Some years ago, around the mid 1990s to 2001, cell phones with internet capabilities became a thing. Pricey at the time, many didn’t believe the benefits could outweigh the cost. And then something really crazy happened.
I’m not sure when this happened. But believe me…it happened.
Here’s what happened.
The invisible force of the market during the dot com bubble, opened the doors for a super fast evolution of technology and its devices. In other industries, products and sometimes services are run through a series of tests before they are sent out to the public. This ensures compliance with laws and regulations, quality assurance, proper marketing and an understanding of the effects or side effects, among other things.
Then one day these phones started becoming cheaper and more capable. We started buying them. Integrating them into our lives. Using them.
And one day…
They started integrating us into their lives. Using us.
Don’t believe me? How do you feel when the battery icon turns red?
Millions run around like crazy looking for a charger at almost any expense to make sure that phone doesn’t die! Somewhere and someway these phones started to control our behavior. They started using us to keep them alive.
Now we download updates, we buy new phones, we buy cases to protect them, we judge others with older phones, we stop at nothing to make sure these phones are happy.
What now? The effects are clear.
Studies show that phones contribute to lack sleep, increase of tiredness during the day, higher levels of depression, anxiety, and can cause addiction be compared to alcohol addiction without the alcohol.
We think we are free because we tell ourselves these things so we feel safe and in control. We feel we’re not addicted because we “can avoid” the phone when we want to. This is a farce. They have too much power now.
And now, we see what happens when our focus is on echo chambers like twitter and there is no way out when Donald Trump is reinstated into the twitter timeline, I suppose.
Like most things, this will come and go.
Until then though, I’ll leave this “concerning” issue with those encircled by it’s re-emerging.
I, on the other hand, will focus on being more educated so I know how to regain the little bit of autonomy I still have left.
And truthfully, being aware of the effects of these devices on our sleep patterns and physiology is most important.
I hope you do too.