THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
It was the French philosopher Descartes who declared, “I think, therefore I am.” Today, it would be more apt to declare, “I am wired, therefore I am.”
Today if you are not wired, you do not exist for those who are. Like radio and television in the last century, the internet has become not only an indispensable tool but also a vital component of our everyday life.
It has become so useful, significant and meaningful for a variety of administrative, cultural and political reasons that a life without it seems unimaginable in the 21st century.
Tweeting, texting, poking, SmartTV… putting your life on hold on a cloud… technology is, and has been, changing the way we live, at a more rapid and advanced stage than perhaps we realise.
While I very much embrace the new technology, one of the things that worries me is our increasing dependence on it. Some people I know have a pathological relationship with their devices, while others feel not just addicted, but trapped.
We are finding it harder and harder to unplug and renew ourselves. You know the feeling — can’t stop frenetically checking your emails, Facebook, Twitter and so on — and how often is such social media used to spit venom at others, the physically and sexually different, the differing thoughts and religious beliefs of others?
Prof. Mark Williams at Oxford sums up the damage we’re doing to ourselves: “What we know from neuroscience — from looking at the brain scans of people always rushing around, who never taste their food, who are always going from one task to another without actually realising what they’re doing — is that the emotional part of the brain that drives people is on high alert all the time…
“But nobody can run fast enough to escape their own worries.”
Or fears and prejudices.
At last count, there are 2,880,233,742 users of the internet; that is, almost one in three of the world’s population. While these numbers refer primarily to Europe, North America and Asia, in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East its use is growing rapidly, as witnessed by the role of social media in, say, the Arab Spring, the Syrian refugee crisis or the indoctrination of Lone Wolf terrorists.
Not everyone who is online is wired. The latter are those of us capable of finding a date or a job through social networks such as LinkedIn, downloading the latest episodes of Black Mirror or purchasing our own bespoke shoes.
Those merely ‘online’ generally avoid these services. However, using the internet just for an email account and cheap airline tickets does not make you technologically incompetent, but rather concerned for your autonomy and personal freedom.
Broader and deeper integration of users’ personal lives has meant people have been more than willing to divulge and share everything about themselves online — sometimes to their detriment, or, at the least, their embarrassment.
Meantime, the technology giants are being repeatedly asked to act, and legislated against, regarding how they impact on young people, amid a growing concern over the effect smart devices are having on children’s mental health – which psychologists have suggested is fast becoming a public health crisis. Along with bullying, grooming and suicide ideation.
In the end, it’s down to responsibility. With freedom, the freedom that our ever-evolving technology gives us, comes a price. That price — if we purport to be a civilised people — is responsibility.
It seems we just might be finally waking up to such responsibility…
