“Dude, did you see that video of that kid yodeling in Walmart?” “Oh my God! Look at her Snapchat story!” “Ugh! She definitely used facetune on that photo.” These comments are just some of the things that you hear teenagers say on a daily basis. Whether we’re updating people about our lives or watching the Walmart Yodel Boy sing at Coachella, it all goes back to technology. Technology was meant to help upgrade our society, make our lives easier. But the fine line between convenience and laziness has been crossed one too many times. In fact, because people have taken advantage of technology in the wrong ways, there have been detrimental impacts for society. Maybe instead of constantly upgrading and creating new technology, it’s time to update the terms of usage.
From keeping up with the Kardashians and their waist trainers to Justin Bieber constantly telling everyone all the different things he does when he wears his Calvin’s, we’ve all at one point been subjected to the world of celebrity endorsements. And although the majority of the time it’d be crazy for me to even think about getting a waist trainer to look like Kim Kardashian, the possibility has crossed my mind. In fact it’s definitely crossed multiple people’s minds because for those who can and are willing to pay for it, they have actually went and bought it. I mean after all, that is how the company and the Kardashians get some of their money. That’s the beautiful thing about technology and social media. People can so easily say whatever, and do whatever, in order to influence those who follow them to do the same. Although most of the time it’s pretty harmless, these advertisements have also proven to be extremely manipulative as well. In Mike Judge’s movie Idiocracy, the year 2050 has been ridden of advertisements. From their clothes to their senators, advertisements have been plastered everywhere that they have people believing that “Brawndo”, a futuristic version of Gatorade, is “what plants crave” and is what’s needed to help them grow. Because of this, they’re left with no crops and a dustbowl. This illustrates how manipulative advertisements are as people were so adamant in believing that Brawndo was the way to go, that it was so hard for them to accept the fact that there was a better alternative. In our current world, the effect of advertisements are amplified even more with social media.
Besides manipulation, advancements of technology have done the opposite of advancing our society. Now I know that there have been many positive technological advancements such as Skype, which has helped with our communication, and the creation of electric cars, which have helped us environmentally, but our society has become far too complacent with these technologies. In Mike Judge’s movie Idiocracy, there’s a scene where Joe, the main character, goes to the hospital and tries to tell the nurse what’s wrong with him. Instead of the nurse talking to him and trying to figure out what’d be best for him, she simply presses a button to diagnose him. This here illustrates how dependant we are on technology as we simply rely on technology as a whole not actually using our brains to make decisions and actually think for ourselves. This parallels with the issue of fake news today. In a Washington Post article, the author interviewed Paul Horner, an infamous fake-news writer. Horner stated that he felt that people were “definitely dumber”, not fact-checking things and using technology to its full potential. It’s scary to think that people will so easily accept whatever is right in front of them, because it shows that there’s not actual thinking going on in the brain. It’s almost as if they’re unconscious.
As a society we’d like to think we’re constantly developing and growing. But it seems to be that the exact opposite is happening. Instead of being independent and thinking for ourselves, we’ve slowly become more dependant and unconscious. Instead of becoming smarter, we’ve become dumber. It’s time we put the technology down and look around us. Do we like what we see?
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