I Complain Too Much

Rant 4: let's analyse why technology is apparently so bad

Okay, time for me to be sort of relatable. But first, I wanna clarify something. This is not an attack at anyone, and I certainly am not complaining about the overall quality of my own family because they are some of the sweetest people in the world. They've accepted me for being who I am, they know and don't care that I write Taekook (though I would not let them read it oops) and they are the reason I was able to even become obsessed with music and all of that.

But as I stated in my first rant thingy, I'm here to complain, not be politically correct or appear to be some perfect human with the best possible opinions. 

Having said that, let's get to ranting. 

This whole rant is based on the fact that sometimes I would rather sit in my room typing a story into my laptop instead of sitting in a lounge watching a film with my family. And sometimes, I don't even like the sound of the film or I'm feeling a bit antisocial and a bit 'I don't really have the energy for people right now'. Or I'm just in one of my rare random bursts of inspiration, and no film can top those moments where something good actually gets written. 

There's this stereotype, and I hate it completely, that teenagers spend too long on phones, tablets, laptops, whatever. Technology is apparently the enemy, destroying the minds of the younger generations. They're ruining their ears, they're going to grow up not knowing how to interact in real life, it's the end of the world. 

Fuck off. 

No, really, fuck off. 

Humanity has been finding ways to avoid others since the beginning of civilisation. Embroidery, newspapers, paintings, every new technology is literally just invented to make things easier for us. The invention of the wheel was based on the idea that some human couldn't be bothered to lift something and decided 'hey I'll just use circles to move it instead'. Why do you think the horse was tamed??? 

Laziness has become an evolutionary advantage, because a longing for inactivity can mean intelligence. In my view, the vast majority of human discoveries were by accident. Why? Because we got lazy, did something wrong or forgot to do something and then a new thing happened. It is literally that simple. 

So yes. I'm a lazy piece of shit. I agree. I'm literally sitting on my bed right now, laptop on my lap, slightly irritated at my own mother because she wants me to make my own lunch to eat at work. Putting a bag of crisps and a sandwich into a bag. Wow. So much activity. 

But I can't be bothered to walk down the stairs. 

I'm gonna do it, of course, but later, once I've written this. And like four or five hundred words of the chapter I'm working on so that it flows nice from the last one. I always aim to do that. Makes the story less disjointed. 

  Also, sometimes I'm just not in the mood to talk to anyone. Not because I don't like them, but because I'm exhausted. I'm something like 70% introvert? Humans are tiring. Which kinda links to the lazy thing. Again.   

Anyway, back to antisocial technology. 

Based on the opinions of my parents, I'm antisocial because I don't want to watch the film. It's antisocial to sit on a laptop, writing a book that gets read by more people than I interact with in real life on a daily basis. That's really not an over exaggeration, or even some sort of way of showing off. Because I talk to - let me think - twenty people maybe? in one normal day. Much more on a work day because retail. 

And yet if you look at the overall figures, in some way I have had an impact on more than twenty people. With one of my books, even if they just looked at them and made a judgement on it based on whatever they wanted to judge. Something I did was part of their day. 

So yeah. That's really antisocial. I'm really avoiding as many people as I can, because I'm allergic to humanity. But wait, talking to people and interacting with people online doesn't count, does it? It's all about that face to face conversation. 

But a text to a real life best friend is fine? That seems a little unfair. 

In short, I think the lack of understanding of how internet conversations actually go in practice among the older generations is what drives them to distrust the youth. Suddenly there's a new language, a new secret that they can't access. Of course older people can enter this world, and they do. I've read fanfics on this website from English teachers who are actual adults in the real world. I don't know them. But they're bloody good at what they do. 

It's the fear of the unknown that hold us back. The fear of being the outsider, the one who doesn't quite get the joke. The one who's sitting on the outside of the circle awkwardly laughing whenever the crowd laughs. We still have that instinct to fit in, and that desperate need to be part of something in order to gain self worth. 

I'll turn to my sociology lessons to explain this with a more real life example, which should make more sense. I am still learning this, so forgive mistakes, I really can't be bothered to grab my textbook, it's really heavy. 

I'm studying education at the moment (among other things), and there are sociologists who refer to something called 'symbolic capital'. To put it simply, this is worth. Self worth, and worth within the group. 'capital' technically means wealth but worth sounds better in that phrase. It's how we judge ourselves and others. In order to gain symbolic capital, we must conform to something. 

Sociologists can link this to class, gender, ethnicity, whatever they want really, but the principle is the same. We have an 'us' and 'them' approach to everyone. And this is where the weird technical term of 'symbolic violence' comes in. 

Symbolic violence essentially means taking away self worth and status within a group away from someone based on a characteristic which means that the person is somehow different from the 'us'. It's a threat in a sense to the social coherence of the whole group, so it's like a punishment for being different. Wearing the wrong brands? Different sexuality? Different attitude to the education system? Must be different, and we must conform in order to get on and survive.

If we turn back to the internet, it's one group. And adults who don't use it often and see technology as a threat, they are the second group. The 'us' and 'them' argument. Once a teenager begins to integrate themselves into the online group, it's like they're shifting from one group to another. 

And that's where the symbolic violence comes in again. Because of that difference. I don't want to be spreading misinformation, so I've got to say that if you find this interesting I'm not the best person to ask. I'm no expert on human beings. But there are studies that show that this almost tribal instinct within all of us is the reason for more serious discrimination. 

That went into a bit of an analysis of why technology is apparently so 'evil'. But I think it just shows how simple it really all is. There's no need to be afraid or ashamed of your use of technology. You're not antisocial just because your friends are online. That's not how it works. You're just fulfilling your need for human interaction in a different, more distant way. 

After all, sometimes people are introverted and nervous and real life can be terrifying. That is what we created the internet for. Helping people feel less alone, and spreading knowledge and understanding. 

I'll end this strange debate analysis argument lecture rant motivational speech thing with a simple idea that I'd like you to consider if you feel like it. You don't have to, though. 

If technology is made for the benefit of people, and doesn't cause harm to the outer world (like the wheel for example), is it necessary to shoot down progress because we don't understand that progress? And how much do we really need the 'old ways'? Sure we should still talk to people, I'm not telling you to be alone forever. And we should still go outside. 

But a little bit of innocent screen time never hurt anyone (I think, don't quote me on that).