Being Part Of Society
This post is going to appear somewhat contradictory.
We’ve become a society hooked on screens. We wake up and check our six-inch screens. We go to work to earn a living, staring at a 27-inch screen. We come home to ‘relax’ by watching a 47-inch screen. And just before we go to sleep, we check our six-inch screens once more.
We are a nation addicted – to smoking, vaping, alcohol, drugs, and who knows what else. As technology evolves, its grip on our attention only tightens, especially when it comes to social media. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and everything in between are simply adding fuel to the addiction fire.
This post is going to appear somewhat contradictory.
We’re quick to recognise the damage caused by alcohol or smoking, but I often wonder how a screen addiction would compare if it were examined under the same level of scrutiny?
It’s fair to say we may soon be facing a pandemic of social-media addiction. Australia has already taken this seriously- so seriously that they banned access for minors, recognising how harmful it can be to young minds.
If that isn’t a wake-up call for other countries to follow suit, then I’m not sure what is.
It’s The Content
Technology has evolved – and continues to evolve – at an alarming, frightening, yet somewhat exciting rate. It pushes us to buy the latest tech, stay constantly up to date, and, in many ways, feel socially pressured to ‘keep up with the trends’.
The giant phone companies introduce updated models year after year after year, adding a very few new features each time. But the technology is rarely groundbreaking. Still, we manage to convince ourselves – or rather, we’re convinced by their clever marketing – to spend another £1,000 (or £60 a month) on yet another six-inch device which has barely been ‘upgraded’.
Fundamentally, they all do the same thing: make calls and send messages – or, more realistically now, WhatsApps. So why do we keep feeding this vicious cycle, adding fuel to a fire we know is already burning too hot?
Addiction.
New technology brings faster technology, which means content is delivered instantly and accessed effortlessly. In turn, it feeds an insatiable appetite to scroll mindlessly for hours, consuming carefully engineered content designed to keep us glued to our screens.
Tens of minutes – sometimes even hours – can disappear in the blink of an eye. What starts as a few seconds of “just seeing what’s happening in the world” quietly becomes three hours lost.
While technology existed in abundance 20 years ago, social media did not dominate our lives in the way it does now. In less than two decades, we’ve shifted from a quieter, more disconnected world into one saturated with content – an environment that can feel obsessive, addictive, and relentlessly screen-driven.
What once felt like a useful tool now shapes how we think, behave, and spend – or rather waste – our time. It’s hard not to wonder what the long-term consequences will be. When entire countries, like Australia, move to restrict access for young people because of the risks to developing minds, it’s a clear sign that something deeper is happening- and that it may not be healthy for us.
How Did We Used To Cope?
We’ve grown with the times. And when we look back in hindsight — armed with the knowledge and experience of today’s technology — the past is bound to look bleak by comparison. We simply can’t imagine a world without what we have now; it feels almost unfathomable.
But if we rewind to the 70s, 80s, or 90s — hop into Doc Brown’s DeLorean and go back to a time before we’d ever experienced modern technology — we wouldn’t know any different. Without that reference point, there’d be nothing missing. It’s like saying:
“We won’t be able to live without something that hasn’t yet been invented.”
What Effects Does Technology Have On Us?
Our minds blur, they are frosted with clarity and most importantly, they are often deluded. What we see, during and after these endless hours of scrolling, literal wasted hours of our precious time on this earth, is something we believe is the truth.
There will be some fiction in what is presented before our eyes, and let’s be honest, with AI at the forefront of technology, who can blame us for believing some of the content out there, but we need to be very careful.
It doesn’t affect everyone the same way, but some of us—especially those already vulnerable when it comes to mental health—are more susceptible to this kind of content. It can make us feel good. It can offer warmth, comfort, even a sense of emotional support. But we have to stay vigilant. As technology evolves, so does its hold on our attention, and the pull of this powerful content can slowly drag us further from reality.