Normally I approach a post with pretty well thought out ideas, today, however, I’m hoping to try to use this space to develop some of the ideas that I’ve had which I think have potential but are somewhat vague.

I was born in 1982, making me part of what has been called by some as the “in-between generation” – This consists of those who were born before the digital revolution and so grew up knowing both the analog world and the digital world. (It’s crazy to me to think that there is an entire generation who has never known life without the Internet being everywhere 24/7).

The first TV that I had was a small black and white set which had knobs for UHF and VHF, rabbit ears, and tuning buttons. Likewise, for many years I only knew radios that had a knob to tune in stations, where you would have to work your way through the static to get the best reception, and I was trained in photography with an SLR that was completely manual. (My first camera was a point-and-shoot Olympus, but at least that still had real film and you had to advance after each photograph manually).

Now, of course, everything is completely different – TVs you either turn on or off, nothing in between, radio stations (if anyone still listens to the radio), are dialed in digitally, no fighting through the static, and most cameras, even fancy SLRs, either are, or can be completely made, automatic.

Okay, so what’s the point of all of this? I’ve been exploring the idea that these different kinds of technologies have ended up influencing our entire way of existing and thinking about our world, even when not using them. When you’re looking at analog, you have a lot of gray area, meaning that you have to put in effort to dial things in for the best possible outcome. This means at least some degree of attention and mindfulness to what you are doing. Digital, on the other hand, is almost exclusively black and white, on or off, requiring little to no thinking and mindfulness at all. It is instant gratification in all of its forms. Great, you say, it’s so much more convenient. Yes, that is true, but what is lost?

Being a part of that in-between generation, knowing both worlds, it seems pretty damn clear to me that this sort of instant gratification, due to this technology, comes to be expected in all areas of life, and when it isn’t, people become very aggressive very quickly, leading to more anger, more discord, and ultimately more violence. This has only gotten worse and worse with the proliferation of devices, and the ability to have a supercomputer in your pocket at all times, with access to essentially all of human knowledge at your fingertips. Great, right? Absolutely, unequivocally, not.

Obviously, I am posting this to a website, on the Internet, and so I am not some sort of neo-Lubbite completely hating on any forms of technology. However, as with everything, there is a time and a place. I am sitting at my desk, typing this on my laptop. For many years this is how the Internet was accessed – on a desktop or laptop. These limitations made it very rare to see people on the subway, in the bathroom, in line at the grocery store, etc., etc. staring at a screen, completely oblivious to that which was going on around them.

My God, when I used the bathroom the other day the man next to me at the urinal was controlling his smart watch with his nose because he couldn’t take 30 seconds out of his day to do something that did not involve technology. Am I the only person who sees the complete absurdity of this world we’ve embraced? The greatest supercomputer of all time is the human brain, but what are we doing with it? Endlessly scrolling and clicking the like button? Avoiding conversation at any time possible by sticking our face in our phones? Yes, we are more connected than ever, but I would argue that the overwhelming majority of those connections are surface level at best, leaving us convinced that we are connected, but, as those surface connections are so incredibly unsatisfying, we are looking for more and more of them constantly like any addict who can never get enough.

And so I challenge you – every time you use one of these instant gratification devices, take 30 seconds, 15 seconds even beforehand to do nothing, pause, take one long deep breath. Are you even able to do that small amount? If not, please take some time to evaluate your relationship with technology and how it is impacting your entire life, and your place in the world. I like cat videos as much as the next cat lover, but step outside, feel the sunshine, look at the beauty of the trees (without taking a picture to post so that other people, who also aren’t looking at the trees commend you for looking at the trees), smell the air, relax your eyes and allow them to look at something that is farther away than a few inches, allow your back to straighten and rollback your shoulders from the constant hunching – by God, be a human being again, not just a receptacle for the constant onslaught of digital bullshit. You are so much more and could be so much more if you can break away and not be some insane person unable to take a break from technology long enough to urinate.

For the sake of the world, take a breath, put down the phone, and take a good look at who you are and what you really want to be. Is it a slave to technology, or is it a free person, able to use tech as a tool without being consumed by it?