How is one supposed to write any sort of thesis when the distractions one faces are more numerous and complex than anything Montaigne could ever have possibly fathomed? Is there any point in trying to translate your thoughts onto the blank page in front of you when Artificial Intelligence will soon be able to produce essays to rival Nietzsche in ten seconds, as opposed to the decades it took Friedrich to compose his greatest works?
We find ourselves surrounded by technologies that have emerged and advanced so quickly that we still don’t fully understand the effect they are having on our minds. Hysteria abounds wherever you look, and resentment builds against the relentless attack on our free will, yet we continue to engage with machinery that we are certain is designed to hijack our attention. How much of ourselves are we willing to sacrifice before we stand up and ask why, as a species, we continue down a path that almost certainly leads to our downfall?
Those who equate innovation and convenience with progress are at best misguided, at worst delusional, for it is impossible for any sane person to look at the embarrassing shallowness of modern discourse on any topic and conclude that our advancements in technology have made us smarter. Our ability to properly consider and debate the critical issues of our time weakens by the day, as the rise of technology transforms misinformation from the ramblings of those on the extreme ends of the political spectrum into an existential threat to our very way of life.
Subjects that were once debated fiercely but fairly in salons and coffee shops are now argued about, because debated is too generous an adjective, on social media with the uncompromising zealotry of those that have completely lost their ability to undertake any form of critical thinking. In the modern world, it is difficult, nigh on impossible, to come across someone who hasn’t surrendered their autonomy in one way or another, whether it be to the mindless content that social media ‘influencers’ produce in such quantities that I find it overwhelming to even try to comprehend, or alternatively, to the conspiracy theories that are propagated by those who know they are preying on minds that have been irrevocably stripped of their capacity to reasonably question what they know to be right and true.
I despair at the extent to which we’ve seemingly just accepted this new way of life, even going as far as to incorporate it into our vocabulary, laughing at each other for spending too much time ‘doomscrolling’. Can you imagine the feats we could accomplish if we redirected the hours we spend staring at our screens every day to something useful, something honourable, something that mattered? Such is the madness of it all that you can now download apps that limit your screentime on certain other apps, as opposed to just putting the bloody phone down and getting on with your life.
I don’t mean to diminish the difficulty we face when we try to peel ourselves away from our phones, because I’ve been there myself and it’s no mean feat, but surely there must be a better way? Perhaps I’m venturing into a subject that deserves its own piece if I begin to revel in nostalgia and reminisce of a time before technology drained the life out of all of us, but what choice does one have when the present reality we’re faced with seems so bleak, and the future so uncertain and terrifying, that the only place that appears to be safe is the past?
