Technology's always been a favorite sticking point. Change is scary and humans would dig nails deep in until blood dribbles down rather than adapt. Enter this meme:
What do you think the chances are that right after that picture was snapped, some of the people would turn to their companions, share a video or picture they found, laugh together over an e-mail, or inform someone of the bad news they were waiting on?
Pictures lie. We want to pretend they don't because they build such a beautiful, easy to manipulate narrative. But one second taken of crowds of people could mean anything. Take that first image. Where some would rather see a bunch of people sitting at a table ignoring their "frens?" "ferns?" (I have no idea what the hell a fren is. Is it a frenemy?) I see four very stressed out people who seem to be watching their phones for bad news.
Perhaps they learned that a friend of theirs in another part of the world is caught in the middle of a terrible storm and they're glued to look for any updates. Or they're sitting pins and needles to hear that a relative survived a surgery. You do not know. I do not know. That's how easily pictures can be flipped and used for someone's angle.
The narrative would rather people return to the good ol' days, when sharing information was so much slower and controlled by those who got to say who is and is not an idiot. Amazing how often those people declared non idiots were straight white males.
Should we go back to the pony express as well? Or perhaps give up all mail services and rely upon some wandering merchant to pass your letters if she gets out that way? Can't ignore your friends around you for someone else you never speak to anymore because they moved two towns down.
Humans love interacting, they need companionship and groups. If they didn't we'd all have cool stripes and be tigers. So when you see another "OH MY GOD, NO ONE TALKS ANYMORE AND IT'S RUINING SOCIETY!" meme, calm down.
We'll be fine.
Edited to Add: I didn't touch the stupid idea of Einstein even saying that because it was so ludicrous to begin with. He was afraid of technology, specifically the atomic bomb that he helped to create. That seemed to do a shit ton more damage than a cell phone.
2 comments:
There is also a meme/article uprising about moms who dare to look at their phones while their kids are playing. Maybe she needs to work to support them. Maybe she's waiting on bad news. Maybe this little break is how she keeps her sanity. People love to assume and judge.
And god knows she can't possibly have a life outside of her children even for two seconds. She's a robot who shuts off once her children are out of her site.
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