A World of Phones

Phone calls, that is actually interrupting someone's life to have them talk on the phone, should be reserved for emergencies only.

Fun fact: I actually hate being on my phone. I use my phone as a last resort when I can’t find anything productive to do or whenever I feel obligated to go on it. I feel like our phones are like an attachment, a part of our body that is unable to stay away from us for long period of time. Our phones make us as people, feel less alone, less isolated from the rest of the world.

Social Media

The toxic world of social media has entered my life fresh into high school. Suddenly, there was a whole different need that had to be fulfilled. A need to gain as many likes, followers and comments were required just to prove that you were more ‘popular’ than somebody else. It consumed my life and I felt obligated to be like everyone else and be as ‘famous’ as they were. It was a sudden need of mine to be known by millions of people for no reason at all.

Due to the constant need to present ourselves as perfect individuals, they only people that true knew us was ourselves. To have been struck by this responsibility to create this image of myself was truely an anxiety driven task. I was determined to become known and I didn’t even have the reason to, I really just wanted to become somebody that I saw while scrolling for hours on end, that perfect person. But what I didn’t know, was that that person wasn’t real.

The way a person presents themselves to the world, is somebody who lacks personality. It’s a person showing no purpose, so why, why did they have what I didn’t. This person had a way of dragging people in, a power not all individuals possess and it’s not even that they do it purposely. One photo leads to another and soon creates this fake person that the teenage population looks up to only for the soul purpose of needing the same.

What I didn’t realise back then was that all that fame, really didn’t matter nor bring meaning to anyone. Those people we see while scrolling through our phones aren’t truely the person they are, they may not even look like the person they claim to be. These likes, followers and comments will not really matter 100 or even 10 years from now, what matters most is to find something or be someone that you want to see when looking back at yourself, someone you really care for.

Throughout lockdown, I realised that the followers you have aren’t the ones on social media, it’s the ones that surround you. The people that love and care enough about you to ask if you’re doing okay. The followers don’t matter and what’s there staring back at me while I’m on my phone isn’t what I want to be. I want to be real, and show my raw self both in real life and on social media without having the worries that come with it.

What I truely want to see on social media are people, not the ones on magazines but people showing what life really is and inspiring people to be themselves rather than what they see.

A World Unknown

I always wonder about a life without the constant need to check on our phones. A life with maps, with people that are physically there when you need them showing their undivided attention towards you, just people being their true selves without the worries of backlash. I think of a world where reading books was more normalised than it is now, a world where authors were given as much attention as actors. What I’d give to turn back time and be reborn, just to experience that world unknown to the new generation. A world where technology seemed impossible to have, that is the world I truely belong in.

Our upmost dependence on our smartphones has completely overruled our lives and stripped the youth away from what's outside. To imagine a life without a phone, would be to imagine a human being talking to you without the need to do anything more than just be in your presence, it is to find happiness in what young people now call boredom, it is for every little conversation you have to be meaningful rather than overbearing. To imagine a life without a technical means would be like imagining when time completely stops and there is nothing left. It is to imagine freedom, away from the need to be controlled by something so little, something small enough to be fit into our pockets.

Our complete utter need to wake up with the means of technology, to search using technology and to find entertainment in our days with use of technology is more than just terrifying. I remember my childhood being filled with happiness and children nowadays are being bought into the social world without having seen the light outside. Children now aren't able to eat without looking at someone's phone and can't find an enjoyment in a walk to the park or talking to a friend. The youth are struggling to find themselves as they pretend to be somebody else, pretend to look like somebody else and it isn't really their fault. The media has controlled everyones life, and it's more prevalent now. We just need to let ourselves go and disconnect from the rest of the world in order to find ourselves in what we call life.

Making Meaning of the World

It is hard to be living in a world, so driven by technology even though they seem so beneficial. We need to learn to take breaks, to have a breather rather than having people online change who we are. We need to learn to follow people who bring happiness to our day and people who inspire us rather than following people that help to bring ourselves down. Our phones shape who we are, more importantly, social media shapes who we are, so we need to learn to show not what we think people want to see but rather what we want to post and show to the world.

We can't let our childhood die out because of technology, we need to find ways to escape and reduce the stress and anxiety the social world causes. We need to learn to be proud and happy of who we are, rather than being ashamed of what we're not, don't let others define your success and don't ever intentionally bring others down by showing yours. Learn to find happiness outside the online world and find who you are, be present when around people and appreciate all the little things in life. Life happens when your phone is charging.

“Put down your cell phones, put everything away, and feel your blood pulsing in you, feel your creative impulse, feel your own spirit, your heart, your mind. Feel the joy of being alive and free.”

~ Patti Smith