Tech
In the past two weeks, I have spent some time pondering about the extent to the internet has changed my life inadvertently raising me and each time I finish an article, there are a hundred things I forgot to include in the article, which just forced me into writing another article about it.
Don’t worry, this article is not about how the internet influenced me but rather the dilemmas one has to face if one uses the internet or technology in general. No one can deny that we don’t use tech but do we know how much we don’t know about it?
The song
To be quite honest, the reason why I started on this trip down memory lane inadvertently starting this trip down a rabbit hole was a song. Honestly, I am surprised about it as well since I listen to music for fun and not to go down a rabbit hole. (If I wanted to spiral, I don’t need music.)
The song you may ask. It is a song from my favourite acapella group if not my favourite music group Pentatonix. In the past, they have mostly done covers but I adore their original songs as well since it is really deep, catchy and just resonates with me.
Their other songs from their newest album ‘the lucky ones’ have also inspired me to think about other topics for articles I wanted to write in the future but the song that inspired three articles is called, ‘never gonna cry again’.
The song is quite catchy but if one takes a step back and listens to the lyrics; instead, one can understand why I decided to write about technology, the internet and social media. I am not hundred per cent sure if it is only about social media and how one has to change oneself to become famous or if I just misinterpret the lyrics but art is in the eye of the beholder so frankly, I don’t care.
Misinterpretation aside, the song just got me thinking about how I have changed myself for the internet and how much I have changed myself because of the internet. Therefore, I wanted to layout when I believe I started to change because or for the internet in my last two articles.
That song also raises some other interesting questions, which from the theme would not have fit into my previous articles. Those questions I intend to tackle in this article. (I do not want to analyse that song since I failed lyrics analysis in school.)
The questions from the song
Social media influencers are showing the life behind the glitz and glamour. Revealing sensitive information about themselves and showing that they are, as they like to put it, ‘just like everyone else.’ It is all about branding for influencers after all but doesn’t that make them actors in their own creation?
The question would be what would happen if the cameras are off. It is hard to pretend twenty-four hours a day. Consumers of influencer´s content may never see the real person behind that persona. Maybe even a dark and unwanted side. Doesn’t that make the influencer, not like everyone else? How real are influencers?
The authenticity of influencers aside, what about the influencers themselves. Does being an influencer distress the influencer? Throughout their careers of creating content, some content may be perceived better (as in getting more clicks, likes, comments, etc…) than others.
Some other content may have sparked a sense of pride but their audience disagrees. Isn´t that distressing? There are certain highlights in their careers. Doesn’t that make everything in between seem bland and undeserving?
Some influencers would even go too far for the likes and the clicks. Where is the line between being a good influencer and being a criminal, crazy, or corrupt? What does too far even mean in the digital do-it-all world?
In the pre-chorus, there is a question asking if everyone is wrong or right. With the internet, there are always people arguing. Trying to convince the other party of their opinion. At the end of the day, the rift between the two still exist and no one is closer to finding out who is right or wrong.
In the pre-chorus, there is also a statement saying that people are making it look like they don’t even try. Since they don’t try, it should be easy achieving the unattainable. To achieve this projected perfection or at the bare minimum of being good enough, one has to change themselves for their followers or in other words the internet.
This just expresses that online validation is more important than the validation one can receive in real life. Through social media it can feel as if everybody loves you, then you will never gonna cry again. However, I just can´t wonder how much truth is behind that statement.
Aren´t people more hurt by being a person that they are not rather than not being accepted by everyone? Since social media has shown time and time again that no matter how many people love you, there will always be haters.
Last but not least, social media is a culture with the influencers being these celebrities’ figures but they paint themselves to be normal. Their followers may know them by name but the influencers won´t know their followers. As a matter of fact, no one will know you by name if you never make a name for yourself.
I guess my question would be if there is any other way for people to know your name and make yourself good enough without, as the song puts it, designed your piece of mind, sell your soul and just be the shell of it. Why does this recognition seem so unattainable without changing oneself?
That was a lot of questions and unstructured, to say the least. Does owning up to my disorganization make me a good person or just a lazy writer? I don’t know but this just proves that questions are everywhere and it can be exhausting to ask them without receiving a satisfying answer.
Frankly, I am not an influencer (I consider myself a bored blogger) hence, I cannot truly answer any one of the questions I have asked but these questions just arose while I was listening to that song. Maybe one day I will found out the answers to those questions.
Would one miss out if one does not have social media?
In my inexpert opinion, I would say no. Many of my friends and peers refuse to have social media due to the time spent on it and the addiction to content. Frankly, they seem just fine. I cannot say for sure how this difference changes our way of thought or anything alike but I am curious.
There may be small disadvantages of not having social media. For instance, in conversations, there would be a slight chance that one will be felt left out since one does not know the newest content on social media. Alternatively, it could be that a certain trend is unknown. The reason why people start to wear something or own something again.
Nevertheless, the time not spent chasing the latest trend could be used more productively. Example? Anything else! Scrolling through social media is not getting us anywhere besides entertaining us to a certain extent.
The reason I keep social media is to see what my friends are doing. Even though we may not text every day, I do (as much as I hate to admit it) care about their well-being. Through the posts and stories, there could be a spark for a conversation.
On social media, I also follow big news sites to be updated on what is happening in the world around me. For much else, I don’t need social media but sometimes I can´t stop myself from scrolling endlessly. This just makes me wonder if I still want to keep social media.
Does technology make our lives easier or harder?
Last question of this article. Does technology make our lives easier? The immediate answer would be obvious. Technology is making our lives easier from day to day with every single new feature and application introduced.
It takes away a lot of trivial tasks that we don’t have to worry about anymore like setting the alarm every night or remembering phone numbers. In the past, it used to be calculators, cameras, calendars, etc… being separate. By combing, everything made everything easier. The truth is that we barely think about or even notice how much technology made our lives easier since why should we question something good.
For this question, I am not necessarily asking the question of what troubles technological advancements brought into our lives even though they do make our lives harder. For example, online safety since the last thing one wants is for their computer files to be held hostage by ransomware attackers or have private information leaked.
For this question, I am more interested if the existence of tech is making our lives easier or not. I can name a reason why technology doesn’t necessarily make our lives easier. The reason did not come easy. I spent a lot of time thinking about it but it turns out I just went about it wrong. Instead of thinking about the bad side of technology, I should have been thinking about what would happen if I do not have tech.
That train of thought just left me on a dark past where I could imagine what would happen if I lost my phone. It was certainly not a pleasant train of thought since that thought just scares me even though it should not that much.
Technology (as much as we hate to admit it) makes us lazy. With grammar correcting tools, everything available just by the touch of your fingers and everything in your house controlled via a simple app, we can´t deny it made us lazy.
Technology also does not necessarily make our lives easier because we become more and more dependent on our phones, computers, and other electronic devices. By putting everything into a small device makes us rely on it more.
A recent example would be the maths exam I wrote some days ago. The professor warned us that calculators are not allowed in that exam and I can´t lie but the idea of mathematics without a calculator petrified me.
In secondary school, calculators were essential during exams. I have gotten used to constantly using my calculator. Doing simple counting to complex calculations. Everything I did in maths class, I did using my calculator even though it did not make me any better at math.
However, when the day came to write the exam, I was undoubtedly nervous even though I revised a lot and calculated many examples. Honestly, when it comes to exams, I am always nervous no matter the subject. I was not confident that I could pass that exam
Even at home when I was practising, even though I tried, I needed my calculator to confirm my calculations. In the exam, I could not confirm my answer, which inadvertently made me doubt myself and made me less secure about the final result. This in turn did not give me much motivation to continue since I know I will fail.
I know what many people are saying right now. Claiming that I should finish the exam, go back and recalculate just to be sure. Hate to break it to you, I did. Multiple times. Over and over again. Until I got sick of that question and moved on. When recalculating I did not find the mistakes.
Devastation hit when the results came in. Needless to say, I was a wreck when I found out that I did not pass by two and a half points. What made this devastation even worse was when the professor allowed us to view the exams.
Some questions, I got right. I was just annoyed that the professor was that nit-picky but I can´t blame him, in the scientific field, attention to detail is key and I just let that slip me by. That was fully my mistake. Guess I was more nervous than I thought.
However, where I lost a lot of points on the rather easy questions just upset me greatly. I will even let you guess what the mistake was. It was a blend of miscalculation and thoughtlessness. That mistake cost me three points. Those exact three points I needed to pass.
What frustrated me, even more, was the fact that I recalculated it multiple times over again. Four times to be exact and each one of the four times, I got it wrong? That just seems rather like bad luck and stupidity on my behalf. However, I must admit that this is just a learning experience.
I made sure to learn in detail for a certain topic and completely ignored the rest because I was confident that with my lack of knowledge on a certain topic and my very in-depth knowledge of another, I could pass the test. I guess I should just learn more about everything next time.
Conclusion
There is not much to say besides the fact that this article is just all over the place with the questions I have been asking and trying to explain to myself. However, this article did give me closure on the maths incident and made me reconsider my reasons for keeping social media. There were good and bad, I guess.