ARE WE BECOMING DIGITAL SLAVES?

Are you a relic of the Stone Age? Do you live somewhere under a rock? When you say you don’t have a phone or a computer, or that you don’t have a WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or another account, you will most likely be asked these questions.

“I’m not sure what that means, but you can look it up on Google,” I recall using those lines for my children when they asked questions to which I did not have answers or when I was too busy to answer them.

Is it possible to live in this day and age without the internet? Is this to say that everyone is now addicted to the internet, or that we have all become Digital Slaves?

The year 2007 will be remembered as a watershed moment in the evolution of various digital mediums, such as the globalization of Facebook and Twitter, as well as the introduction of Cloud and other communication mediums.

The Pandemic era has also brought with it more advancements in digital networking and the introduction of new communication networks, making the world smaller than ever before. You don’t even need to go to classes to learn, you don’t need to go to work, you don’t even need to travel long distances to see your loved ones, and you can buy whatever you need online without having to go to the market, all thanks to digital technology! What a wonderful Freedom!!

Responsibility comes with freedom, and great freedom comes with great responsibility. After all, nothing is free.

If the digital era is dubbed the “Freedom Era,” what exactly is freedom when the price to pay affects almost every aspect of human life, effectively turning humans into digital slaves? Both the young and old can stay glued to a screen for hours on end; this has resulted in an increase in mental illness and a breakdown of social life; it has affected the home front in unimaginable ways; parents no longer have time to parent their children; children have chosen the kind of lifestyle they prefer from the internet, and the list goes on. There is always something new to see and read on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, and YouTube, among other platforms. You have Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Chrome, and so on.

According to Sherry Turkle, a sociologist and psychologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the parent-child relationship has been impacted by the devices we carry with us everywhere we go. The parents are using an iPhone, while the children are using an iPad. When a toddler is crying, the parent does not need to investigate the cause; simply give the toddler an IPad with a baby song playing and the cry will be over. Children are exposed to technology at an early age. Crimes have also gone digital. There is undoubtedly a high price to be paid. The result is as bad as being addicted to drugs! The more digital devices you have, the more you desire, and the inventors are not slacking in any way; newer versions of phones are being introduced on a daily basis, newer technological gadgets are being rolled out, and newer social media platforms are being introduced. It’s a fierce battle for the dissatisfied human mind!

Is it possible that all of these negative effects make technology a bad thing? Should we free ourselves from digital enslavement? No, this is akin to tossing the baby out with the bathwater.

Can you imagine today’s world without technology?

There is a need for balance, for social media detox from time to time in order to maintain a healthy life both socially and otherwise; balance is essential. There is a need to establish rules for social media usage, particularly at home, and the willpower to follow such rules must be developed over time.

Whatever you allow to control you eventually becomes your master. In this case, you have the option of not becoming a digital slave.

In our daily use of technology, we must always keep the following saying in mind:

“If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it”- Lyndon B. Johnson, Former President of the United States of America

Sources

https://medium.com/the-mission/why-the-brain-cant-resist-facebook-digital-slavery-and-how-to-handle-freedom-726b2c4cef23

https://christianstandard.com/2022/07/the-slavery-of-the-digital-world/