Anti-Social Networking
How many times have you been out to dinner and noticed a couple sitting across from one another, each scrolling frantically downward on their phone in complete ignorance? What an advanced society we are…
“Your hair looks lovely.” Tom uttered, avoiding any eye contact. Scrolling.
“HUH???!” replied Sally, confused.
She looked upwards in Toms general direction, slightly unsure of where he was actually located, unable to remove her thumb from the screen.
“Thanks.” she eventually murmured.
“What for?” asked Tom, forgetting what he had just said.
“Well now I forgot where I was on my game. Thanks. Dickhead.”
Sally may be overreacting, but she does have a point.
This type of situation, although fictional, is an example of the negative impact internet and smartphones are having on humans in a social aspect. And it disgusts me.
Sally’s hair did look lovely by the way. She didn’t do it to impress Tom though. She did it so she could take 47 selfies in the toilet and impress her Facebook buddies.
So even when in a public, social surrounding, the addiction to our phones seems generally stronger than our ability to go through the bodies natural process of “courting”. Even though there may be an attractive member of the gender of your persuasion right in front of you, as it stands, technology seems to be mightier than the hormone.
Sally never could forgive Tom for what he did that night.
It’s all in the mind.
Could it be that our imagination is so powerful that the simulated version of interaction (namely looking at names on screens) is enough to trick the brain into thinking it is real. I believe so. The blurred line between imagination and reality is extremely powerful (See Imagination or Reality? Which is more important?) and though this can work to our benefit, it can just as easily have detrimental consequences. Although now that we have experienced simulated interaction, we will not want to live without it.
Humans, myself included, seem to have a real problem with admitting they made a mistake. Convincing ourselves and others we are right, when we know we are not, seems to take priority over ensuring the viability of a future for our species, our planet. What the heck?
Humans: The most intelligent dumb-asses in the known Universe
Seriously what is wrong with us? Why is it that every step forward with advances to make our lives simpler or more comfortable, ultimately leads to 70 steps backwards? I’m glad I asked…. I have a theory.
Life has been around for a long time. Humans, not so long, but we are happily situated in what we believe to be the top of the food chain. Despite our late arrival, there are inbuilt chemical, circuitry and physical mechanisms that we are not consciously aware of, that have been carefully adapted and honed to suit the current environment at any given point in time throughout our evolutionary journey. Yeah, it’s evolution baby!
Clearly we didn’t get here by accident. Here is what I believe has happened. At some point somewhere along the evolutionary chain, somebody began to realize that they were pretty clever beings.
But wait… Uh-Oh! Being so clever we can make guns to hunt our food. How easy is that? Nothing much left to do other than breed… Hang on now there are more people here, we need to knock down all those trees so we can farm food to feed these little buggers! Oh great, those little buggers just bred, and made more little buggers… No doubt they’re going to do the same. Man all this breeding is making me tired, shoot that horse and make a car dammit! Running out of room here, need more land. Let’s fight those guys and steal theirs so we can keep breeding and farming and breeding and farming. Come on! We got guns!
You see, the explosion in the earths population is directly related to mankind’s tendency to make stupid decisions.
Self destruction
Just as species are able to evolve, they are also able to devolve if necessary. I believe the very mechanisms we have acquired through evolution are now intentionally working against us, without us even being consciously aware of it (after all the primary instinct is to survive, at all costs).
Everything on Earth is connected to everything else. The Earth knows there are far too many people here to survive in a sustainable manner. The Earth feels our continual unrelenting attack on her. She is doing something about it. What is she doing about it? She is letting nature take its course, of course.
Put down your phone and go plant a tree. And stop thinking about sex.
Eventually we as a species will become so “advanced” technologically that we will ultimately wipe ourselves out. Removing ourselves permanently from the food chain, like the super-intelligent dumb-asses we naturally are. Even if it means destroying most other life, our fate is inevitable.
That is when Mother Nature will execute her revenge, and continue the process of evolution – without us.
Read. Think. Chill. 