Let’s begin this blog with a thought-provoking quote from Tristan Harris:
“How do you wake up from the Matrix when you don't know you're in the Matrix?”
Notifications, updates, messaging, scrolling, etc. The digital world is just full of zombies walking around, locked into their digital devices.
Addiction was something that only a few would suffer from, but today 80% of the human race is addicted to their mobile devices, locked into the Matrix. I see it all the time when I’m on the streets with my camera: people walking into each other or walking into the road without looking. It’s crazy and baffling.
Yes, I have an iPhone, iPad, and my MacBook, but I don’t let them control me. I have no social media, I don’t use whatsapp, google, or anything to do with microsoft. I just don’t trust these companies. I spend less than an hour a day using my phone, I mostly use it for music to block out the noise of the modern world and the only time I use my other devices is when I’m editing photos or, like now, writing blogs. I don’t use them to watch videos of stupid people doing stupid things and I don’t search online shops for cheap plastic rubbish from China. I’m a minimalist both in my daily life and digitally. My phone has most of the apps it came with because I can’t delete some and I’ve added fewer than 20. These include essential apps like my bank app and for charing my car.
I won’t give over my personal information just to use a product, I’ve sold my games console when microsoft wanted a photo of my driving licence, the apps we use want to track where we are, what we’re looking at and god knows what else and yet all the zombies around me seem happy to just hand over all their data, I mean what the fuck, why the hell would you do this? I know most people will say “well it’s just the world we live in” but I always respond with “do you know how fucking stupid that is?” Trust me people its not the world we live in, you can choose to live in a different world by just limiting your digital footprint.
I always ask people why do you need to be updated about everything that’s happening the second it happens. I don’t understand why we need constant updates. Your friend is having beans on toast? You must know and like it. A bomb has gone off in a country you don’t live in and don’t know anyone in, yet you have to know about it the second it happens. Why?
I recall my old boss insisting on constant updates, fearing a potential Russian nuclear missile launch. I asked if he received that notification what would he do in the seven minutes before the missile hit. He was stumped, so I pressed on, asking why he needed to know. His blank stare and response that I do simply confirmed my point: unless you’re Superman, there’s nothing you can do, so wouldn’t it be better to remain ignorant?
Information overload: just because we can know almost everything every second of the day doesn’t mean we should know everything every second of the day. You know it’s no wonder that more than half of the world’s population is suffering from some kind of depression. This is why I used the word zombie at the start of this blog. Once you’ve finished reading this blog, I would suggest you give the George A. Romero film Dawn of the Dead a watch and then go onto the streets of your city and take a look. There’s no difference; it’s just mindless zombies walking around, moving from one shop to another with their mobile devices fixed in their hands. The real world is far scarier than Romero’s.
I see children as young as one year old using a digital device, parents using these damn things just so that they can keep the kids quiet while they are using a digital device. I mean, for fucks sake, do people not see how insane this is?
I don’t know about you, but aren’t you sick to death of meeting up with a friend for coffee and all they do is sit on their mobile phone? I now have a rule: if you want to catch up with me, you can’t take your phone out of your pocket. If you do, I will just get up and walk away.
So why am I writing about this? A friend messaged me after I wrote the blog about struggling and said, “Why don’t I focus on the dystopian we’re all living in?” And you know what? It’s a bloody good idea. I feel like extraterrestrial life will discover this lifeless planet in about 25 years. They’ll look at earthlings living back at the start of the 21st century, and they will just think, “What the hell happened? Why did they do this to themselves?” My hope would be that they would find my upcoming photos showing the decline of the human race and the rise of the digital zombies.
The next few years, I’ll be focusing on photos of people sitting in coffeehouses, walking in the streets, etc., using digital devices, and let’s see what crazy photos I get of mindless zombies that have taken the blue pill and decided to stay in the Matrix. Remember as Morpheus says in the film “ You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.” Come on people take the red pill and wake up from this nightmare digital dystopia.
If you would like to limit the use of your digital devices I recommend you read one of the following books:
Cal Newport - Digital Minimalism
Max Fisher - The Chaos Machine
Nicholas Kardaras - Digital Madness
Jason Lanier - Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media accounts right now
