The first Incredibles movie was by far my favorite animated movie of all time. It was one of the movies I’d be willing to watch over and over again, even as an adult with other things to do. So naturally, I was terribly excited when the second movie came out — I watched it twice in the movie hall.
As I watched it for the first time, I watched it how a kid would probably watch any superhero movie. I was excited about the action and fascinated by the powers. However, the second time I watched the movie, I started realizing that the Screenslaver, a freaking smart villain, actually seemed quite sensible. Before you call me crazy, let me get my point across.
*Spoiler Alert*
I’m not trying to support sending a bullet train backwards or trying to potentially kill dozens of people to make superheroes illegal. There aren’t any superheroes in the real world (right?) and so far, no one has developed a technology that hypnotizes people through a mere screen. But when the Screenslaver (or the uber-rich Evelyn Deavor) delivered her monologue of why (or how) she did what she did, there was a real message hidden in her words:
“You don’t talk, you watch talk shows. You don’t play games, you watch game shows. Travel, relationships, risk — every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance, so that you can remain ever-sheltered, ever-passive, ever-ravenous consumers, who can’t free themselves to rise from their couches to break a sweat, never anticipate new life.”
Bam.
Those are definitely some of the most powerful, yet sensible words I have ever heard from a villain — a pack of maybe sixty words that comprehensively summarizes the future we have just arrived into. And although Evelyn’s greater goal was to banish superheroes, she effectively managed to communicate the bitter truth of today.
I mean, let’s face it — I’m writing this on a screen, you’re reading this on a screen, and the only contact you and I are probably ever going to have is through this screen. We wake up and check our phones, we take them with us into the restrooms, we watch Netflix as we eat, and we fall asleep browsing on our phone. I cannot think of a single moment when I’m completely without any form of technology, even if I am not constantly using it. My phone is next to me when I sleep, I wake up and work on my laptop, I play songs when I cook. Take my phone away and I’m going to end up feeling helpless.
And that is a problem.
Why can we not live without our technology?
Sure, it helps us keep in touch with those near and far, we don’t need to write letters because we have email, we can capture the precious moments in our lives without carrying a bulky camera. All our handy gadgets are definitely helpful, but the problem is: we took it too far.
Our obsession with everything that can be done while sitting down, everything that has immediate results, is seen not only in our daily lives, but also in the industry.
PayPal Co-Founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel once said, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”
I’m not saying flying cars are the easiest things to make, and I am certainly not trying to put down Twitter — but I am upset about this trend. What happened to the future where we had flying cars, colonized planets, and stuff like that? When did our super cool sci-fi movies turn dystopian?
Today, there are hundreds of entrepreneurs, hundreds of people trying to create something that would make life for others easier. But for some reason, a lot of these people still tend to believe that the best thing to do is creating the next Facebook for teens looking for another platform without their parents on it. I am not generalizing or trying to be rude, I’m simply expressing what I have noticed.
And so here we are — our companies are spinning out softwares, and we are gobbling them up like the world is ending tomorrow. We still have dreams, we still have aims and we still have life goals, but hey, those can wait for an hour (or four) while I find out just exactly what all of my friends, and the friends of my friends, and everybody else, is doing with their lives. Right? Those goals aren’t going away, but there’s a new episode of my favorite TV show out that simply cannot wait!
Screenslaver was unfortunately and unapologetically correct. Every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to us at a distance. And maybe it’s time to change that.
So about three weeks ago, I decided to cut my usage of technology by half.
Alright, not literally. I don’t think I would be able to actually get anything done without my laptop. I write on it, I study on it, I submit work through it — this box of electronics is my life, basically. But what I could do without was my cell phone. I mostly use my phone to browse Instagram and Facebook, send snaps, play random games, and listen to music. 90% of everything I did on my phone was absolutely and utterly useless. I wanted to cut down on my tech usage, and I knew that not using my phone was the only real way I had.
Once I made the decision, here’s what went down.
The first day was horrible. My phone was my drug, and waking up in the morning and not checking my phone immediately after was perhaps the hardest thing I’ve done in a while. Not instantly opening my email, not checking what was up with people, not wasting some more time in bed — I mean seriously, are you telling me that I actually have to get out of bed? It was a goddamn fight, but once I realized I had time to actually make myself a breakfast, instead of looking at other people’s food on Instagram, it felt pretty awesome. The entire day was a struggle of doing something productive instead of simply using my phone, but every time I resisted the urge and actually got shit done, it felt incredible afterwards. The hardest part of the day was when I had to go to bed without spending an hour on my phone. My brain was so used to the mind-numbing time I spent every night on my phone that it refused to let me sleep, until I finally gave in and got my phone. It felt terrible to break my vow but shit happens, and it was only my first day. Or at least that’s what I told myself.
The next couple of weeks weren’t much better. It was hard enough to go through one day without knowing what was up with everyone I knew, but avoiding social media for WEEKS? Good god.
I know I could have entirely deleted my social media accounts to make my quest easier, but although it was the nicer way, I knew it wasn’t going to help me in the long run. It is so much more effortless to steer clear of something you don’t have, but my plan wasn’t to go off social media completely — and the day I reinstalled the apps would be the day I lost control again. So as unpleasant as the entire experience was, I decided to stick with it. I’m not going to lie and say that I stopped using my phone completely, that I never checked social media and I never played games. I did all of those things, but in lesser, more reasonable amounts.
I created to-do lists to help me remember what else I could be doing with my day, and to be honest, they helped a lot. I create to-do lists fairly regularly, but never before did I notice just how handy they really were. They helped me keep my focus and kept reminding me of everything I needed to get done, and for once in my life, I actually got every task checked off.
So what changed?
You’ll probably realize this if you go through my blog, but I finally started writing again after years. I wrote for my blog, I wrote for work, I wrote for myself. It was beautiful and liberating.
I rediscovered the meaning of happiness. I am not exaggerating, but constantly looking at people’s perfect lives on social media had led me to stop being completely contended. Because really, how could I be satisfied? I spent my vacation in my house, not at a lovely beach. I didn’t have a cute puppy. My skin wasn’t flawless. My clothes weren’t really “in fashion”. I didn’t even get to have coffee at Starbucks! Nothing was right.
But here’s what I realized out — I got to spend three months with my wonderful family that I won’t see again for the next four months. I don’t have a puppy, but I have four adorable nieces and nephews who are already counting down the number of days before I come back for my next vacation. My skin wasn’t flawless, but hey, at least I don’t get sunburnt! My clothes weren’t the greatest, but they were comfortable and they represented me. And let’s be real, no one really needs Starbucks. Every single thing in my life was perfectly perfect.
A Disney Villain caused me to completely revamp my life, and I am much happier today than I was a few weeks ago. Bluntly said, I found life again.
If you stayed with me up until here, thank you. No really, this is probably the longest blog I have ever written. Thank you for listening, and I hope that maybe, just maybe, you’ll find some meaning in my words.
