Column: How technology will be a detriment to society: A Monologue

I’m sure you’ve read the headline a million times before: How technology will be a detriment to society. It also happens to be an English teacher’s favorite essay topic for students.

We all read it on a computer or phone, exit out the tab and carry on with the world in our hands. We get a buzz off our phones and theirs from the radiation and notifications like the consumers and wallets we are. These balls of solid energy and waves that we place in our pockets and can’t find ourselves detaching from.

But no, not the vaccine because we don’t know what’s in it. Now we all decide to use intelligence.

Ads in our music. Ads in our videos. Ads in our games. Ads in our mind. Oh boy, don’t you want a coke.

Companies that sell themselves as your friend. Companies that sell themselves as one of us. Companies that sell recycling. Companies that sell. Social media pawned off as a way to get people closer together. To be social.

However, it has done quite the opposite. Instant gratification, superficial, self-entitled bull. We feel as though our lip-syncing is worthy of the time of others. We feel as though a minute-long video is too long. We feel as though the contrasts of us are weird. We feel as though we are original even though we have been consuming the same content and therefore are merely reiterations of one another.

The likes and dislikes. Black and white. No room for grey anymore as it requires too much thought. Perhaps the English teachers are onto something. Aware of how we are crumbling and trying to engrain it into our minds. Or perhaps the English teachers too are susceptible to the beast that is technology and will close the tab continuing to use the world in their hands.