Hi, dear Hive readers. Greetings from Caracas. Well, once again @galenkp offers us some interesting topics to write about. All of them linked to the way we conceive our lives and our needs. They make me think about the way we attach ourselves to certain ideas and needs that we base on mental models imposed on us by today's society. What do we need to be happy, what is right and what is wrong, what is success or failure, do I have what it takes to have a good life in a world in constant crisis, do I have what it takes to have a good life in a world in constant crisis, do I have what it takes to have a good life in a world in constant crisis?
Honestly, I think we live in sick societies that generate a lot of anxiety in their citizens. The welfare state towards which the world seemed to be heading after recovering from the First and Second World Wars seems today to be a big bluff. Our highly technological societies have generated great inequalities and little well-being. If there is anything we can do to live better in a second life or to erase bad moments in our present life, it is to transform ourselves spiritually and thus transform the way we think and live. This week I will write about what would happen if two fundamental objects that have shaped the way we live today were to disappear.
Imagine you had to select two items currently in your possession (that you currently use) and throw them away forever, what are they and why and how would that affect your life?
ME WITHOUT MY COMPUTER
photo taken with my mobile phone camera
I am a writer, my life has revolved around the craft of writing and teaching others to write for over thirty years. When I started writing in my youth there were no personal computers, you had to handwrite a rough draft and then type your text on the manual typewriter. I don't remember when I bought my first computer, but I probably wasn't young anymore. It was a PC, a clone, you bought the parts separately, used and it was cheaper than buying a new PC, as I didn't know much about computers a young neighbour put the clone together and sold it to me.
Some years ago my laptop was damaged and I was without a computer for several months. I had to write and work on my sister's, my then partner's, my niece's computer. I know what it means to be without a computer. It is an object that has become indispensable in our daily lives. We don't just use it for work, which is already important. We use it to search for information, to communicate with our family, our friends, our clients. But we also use it to entertain ourselves, to watch films, to play games.
Although we can all recognise the computer as a useful, or even indispensable object, I must confess that a part of my mind is still analogue and resists the advances of technology. There are times when my clumsiness, my lack of ability to function in the computer world and the world of cybernaut technology makes me grumpy, I feel that I arrived late to an increasingly technological world and it is not hard for me to fantasise that I am back in the world of the 80's in which very few used computers.
Then I could throw away my computer and not feel as clumsy as I often do. Obviously it's just a fantasy, going back to that time would be the only way to live in a world where I didn't need my computer and could just throw it away and live peacefully. Everything changes too fast and sometimes I feel that I can't adapt to this delirious level of very fast and constant change.
ME WITHOUT MY MOBILE PHONE
photo taken with my mobile phone camera
I look at it sideways, because being portable you take it everywhere, it's easy to be tempted to open any application, any social network, whether you need it or not. It's worse than the computer, because the problem with the mobile phone is not a technological problem, it's very easy to open any application installed on the mobile phone. It's like falling in love with a seducer. You want to stop seeing him, but... you can't! That's what happens to me and it happens to millions of people.
On the other hand, there are social networks, designed to interact, to connect you with your loved ones, with your friends and with your clients, the people who need your services or have the same interests as you. But not one at a time, but many at the same time. Although I only have a little more than 1,000 followers on my social networks, when I open them they show me all the people who liked my message, those who sent me a message, the messages that some of the people I follow posted on their feed, the comments that some people left on their messages, the reels they posted, the stories, which are images with shorter messages. With a mobile phone it is very easy to be tempted to look at it all the time.
As with the computer, sometimes I also feel overwhelmed by the mobile phone, by the need to be constantly connected to it, due to the various functions it now performs in my daily life, which are more or less the same as the computer. But as I have already said, it is much more handy because of its size, which makes it portable. If I were to throw it away and not be able to use it again, I would lose all the devices that today are incorporated in a mobile phone, in addition to the telephone function, the camera, video camera, film and video playback, sending and receiving messages, music player, voice recorder. It would be like taking my life back to the way it was more than thirty years ago.
As I have already said, it is not easy for me to live in the completely technologised world I am living in, when I am already on the threshold of old age, but it is what it is. I can't imagine myself living as a hermit, on the fringes of technology, even if at times I would like to disappear the two objects I use the most: the computer and the mobile phone.
Translated to english with DeepL.com (free version)
You have recreated new forms of slavery, which I will call ‘technological slavery’. It is an intriguing concept that invites us to reflect on our relationship with technology. From a philosophical and ecological perspective, both slavery and technology share a way of constituting the relationship between the human and the artificial. In times of increasing digital expansion, it is crucial to consider how technology can silence and distance us from the local ecological connections that gave rise to it. So while we may not be physically chained, we must be vigilant not to become slaves to our devices and apps.
Thank you for your reading and comment. Excellent reflection, I totally agree @amigoponc.