Lately, an article has been circulating on social media. The irony of the series that acts as the article's focus is that it exposes all of us doing the very thing we are guilty of now: being glued to our electronics, being entranced by our screens so that we cannot see the outside world.
Eric Pickersgill's series, Removed, has us shaken to our core. As a society, we already know that we are controlled by our devices. Our parents and grandparents scold us for it, we joke about it being the reason we never get any work done, we're encouraging our children to be robots by having tablets and phones acting as the memory board. Yet none of this seems to bother us, even though the sad truth is literally staring us in the face.
We accept our faults, the seclusion, and emptiness that we allow in our lives, guaranteeing that nothing will change. We will continue to have our arms extended for selfies, face away from our partners in bed while staring into a shining abyss, miss out on true nature because we feel that we need to document it without actually seeing it.
At one point in our lives, technology was not a focus. Technology was an up-and-coming idea that past generations swore would die out. We used to sit beside complete strangers in the park, on the bus, or meet someone on the street when technology was not such a "necessity". Granted, you can do this now but our little trustworthy devices have conditioned us to have this great social anxiety in almost every situation. Instead of talking to a stranger, you are scrolling through Instagram or Twitter comparing yourself to other people instead of embracing the differences of your stories and experiences to someone else's. You are curing your "boredom" by further secluding yourself rather than spreading your wings like a beautiful butterfly.
A great man once said, "Without technology humanity has no future, but we have to be careful that we don't become so merchandised that we lose our human feelings."
But who said it? Do you know because you parted from your screen to read a physical text? Or did you Google the quote because it required less effort? Either way, you'll find out soon enough. For now, I encourage you to shy away from Google this time and see the answer provided by someone that hopes to make a difference one day.
It is true. With how advanced we are as a human race, we would not continue to evolve without technology. It allows us to thrive while also contradicting all the hard work that has led to this point. We have finally been exposed to our truth; we have, indeed, become so merchandised that we lost our human feelings. It has only come to our attention now because an inspired photographer decided to release his artwork on social media rather than a museum. Pickersgill knew exactly what he was doing; he knew it would go viral because of how predictable and disappointing we have all become.
So, the big question: are we going to learn something from this and be extraordinary, or continue to fall into the abyss- numb, boring, and empty?
It's your choice. It's our choice.
If you have made it this far without Googling already, the above quote comes from the brilliance of this man.
