Callie
Callie
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

One of the first assignments I have received in my freshman English course this year was to read a couple different online articles — one of which being this one.

And boy, am I glad it was.

As a teen, truly starting out in the world for the first time, alone, I’ve really begun to see the impacts of technology. It’s so easy to create a perfect online profile now, and I’ve found as I’ve been meeting people here the last few weeks, that they are truly nothing like the online profile I read, or the same as the person I had been texting for weeks prior.

I hadn’t thought about it until now (which is why I feel prompted to respond here in the comment section), but I can’t help thinking about how much time I spent talking to these people I had never met before, crafting the perfectly charismatic and impressionable persona, agonizing over each text and post, instead of spending time with the people near me, like my family, all under the pretense of “I’m making friends for college.” The reality is, after meeting most of these people in person, I don’t talk to them any more. I don’t go looking on their Instagram to see what they’re up to, I don’t worry about our streak on Snapchat. In essence, all of the time I spent “getting to know them” was meaningless, and I wasted precious moments with those I consider most important.

Reading this spoke to me on other levels, as well. I remember how much it bothered me that we were driving through the beautiful Redwoods for the first time, and my sister sat in the back of the car with headphones in, playing a game. Or that my mom feels that she needs to capture everything in a picture, and instead of being present in the moment, she is separated by a screen.

And I am no hypocrite. When I was younger, I loved reading and writing: I would read anything I could get my hands on (including the dictionary) and I would constantly put out stories and poems, just for the sake of it. I contribute most of that to the fact that I didn’t have a phone and I wasn’t on social media until 14. But now, especially in the last year and a half, I found that I was more interested in seeing how many likes I could get on my Senior Sunday posts, or comparing how much I was doing in my summer to my other friends (many of whom I don’t really talk to in real life) on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. I find it hard to write, like I constantly have writers block, and I find it almost painstaking to sit down and read — my brain refuses to engage in the words. I don’t think I’ve finished a book cover to cover in almost two years, which is frustrating. I used to pride myself in how many books I was able to not only read, but connect and remember, and I am embarrassed that I find it more interesting to scroll through my feed than read or write for fun.

I think that this important information that more people need to see and understand — especially in todays rapidly expanding technological society. It is not ok that such a thing as “persuasive design,” and though part of the blame is on me for allowing myself to be sucked into the black hole, the truth is that there shouldn’t BE a black hole to be sucked into in the first place. However, now that I know more about this topic, I feel like I can productively combat it in my every day life. I hope that your work can help open the eyes of others as well.

Thank you,

Callie

    Callie

    Written by

    Callie

    Currently a Marine girlfriend, she is going to college for a major in Political Science and minors in Journalism and Spanish.