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Winter ABC Day 8: Beauty Behind the Madness of Technology

The discussion on technology feels like any debate. Before I dive in let me use my brother's words, "Each to their own."

It's an interesting follow up to the previous article about my favourite apps. Today I share my thoughts on the machine that's running the world. (Obviously girls run the world, we don't argue with Queen Bey!)

As I am typing this almost 40% of the world's population is online. The internet has literally made the world a village. Technology on the world wide web replaced the post office, slowly replacing print media and has created a subculture within human cultures.

We have communities and groups on Facebook. We have digital fan clubs for literally everything from comic books to movies to celebrities, hey Swifties. Hash tags bond human beings for their rights for example #feesmustfall, #blacklivesmatter and #lovewins. This is thanks to the 40 hours a week spent on the web by individuals.

Apart from socialising technology fast tracked and decompressed life. We moved from floppy disks to flash disks and hard drives. Why buy a vinyl, cassette or CD when you can stream music? Not to mention I don't need to make a call for a cab or pizza because there's an app that simplifies that. Mobile phones deserve their own hall of fame. Gen Y and previous generations experienced what was called a landline and payphones. Thinking of it feels like centuries ago. Mobile phones are the best friend that's with you everywhere.

Let us not forget ATMs, CCTV, microwaves, CGI and even satellite dish a.k.a cable television. Technology needs a hero status. It has changed lives and perceptions of the world around us.

Justin Timberlake sang, "Ayo, I'm tired of using technology," followed by lyrics suggesting that neither sexting or Skype intimacy was going to work. When we think of it, we are all now socially awkward individuals in this IT age. People don't ask for dates, they slide into DMs. Few make effort at working on relationships because an emoji will do the trick. Not to mention how families barely talk to each other because everyone is on the phone. Exhibit A...

Yes that's my family at brunch. How intimate? The fact that most of us have nine to fives and even overtime on the Internet, according to researchers, predisposes us to mental health issues. Over the past few years, researchers have found that individuals who use the internet were likely to suffer from narcissism, and depression amongst other mental health problems. These are precipitated by the need to meet expectations because on the Internet 'looking poor and ugly are a choice.'

The other side effects and disadvantages of the internet include hacking, lack of privacy, cyber bulling and increased dangers of crime. Other research states that human beings are lazier, less healthy (microwaved food causes cancer) and have short attention span. In Frey and Osborne 2013 research, their study revealed that roughly 47% of total US employment is at risk from computerisation. So I Robot isn't just a film, but a possible reality.


In its reliability technology is also unreliable electrical power cuts, trojan horses and Internet shutdowns can make the world stop.

After writing of somewhat an essay, my conclusion is take a vacation.

Unplug your life for a week, read a book, watch, enjoy the sunset with your mind taking the photographs.

The best moments happen IRL!

P.S. Always write your own love story!

Ciao!

Lady E

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