Imagine the
following scenario: It is 6:30 AM. The piercing sound of an alarm clock of a
smartphone rings out. A tired person, whose head lies just millimetres away
from the phone, turns around, opens his eyes and switches off the annoying
sound. He does not get up right away but stares at the tiny screen with tired
eyes and starts typing furiously: “Good morning, world!” It is 7:00 AM. Music tunes
sound from the smartphone. The person sits at a table, scooping cereal into his
mouth with one hand, while the other hand is busy holding the smartphone as
close to the face as possible. His eyes hurry over the screen. 7.05 AM: fifteen
people have liked your status. Seven have commented on your status. – Not that
hard to imagine. Probably everyone has experienced something similar before.
Likewise,
in the second chapter “Where I lived and what I lived for” of his work “Walden”
Henry David Thoreau, an American writer and philosopher of the 19th
century, describes a morning at the pond where he lived: the peacefulness of
nature, and the serene alertness of the own body and mind. (Thoreau 95) To Thoreau
the short scenario would have been unimaginable, maybe even considered a disastrous
incident. It clearly is something Thoreau could not have thought of, due to the
fact that 150 years ago there had not been any existing smartphones. But
furthermore, he cherished an uncommitted lifestyle of simplicity and austereness
(Thoreau 89), and enjoyed the reality of nature and true freedom. Therefore, he
would not have approved of the highly technological life we live today.
Today, the
average person spends around three hours per day checking social media plat-forms
like Facebook and Twitter. Most social contacts are conducted via aforesaid
platforms. As a consequence, social media plays not only a major role in modern
life, but it has become – what I would like to call – a second reality. This second
reality seems to engross not only people’s time but also people’s entire
lives and therefore tends towards becoming their first reality. The more it becomes reality the more people consider
it, and everything that belongs to that sphere the truth. But it is a false
conclusion to believe in something that is as fanciful, insincere, and
fugacious as the internet and social media, in which people primarily choose to
show and tell what they like others to see of them, and in which invalidities
become novelties of great importance and vanish the next minute. But as we
know, “shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is
fabulous.” (Thoreau 102) Based on our pre-occupation with the second reality we seem to be missing out
on life. But in order to live a happy and satisfactory life we need to be awake
– awake in the genuine reality. As Thoreau has said: “To be awake is to be
alive.” (Thoreau 96)
It is true:
time changes; and with the change of time the world and the people change as
well. Thus, everything – even the hasty, multitasking and highly
technologically advanced life of a 21st century person – must have some
kind of eligibility. But from time to time we must be capable of breaking the
chains of our modern world and consider real
life as reality. At least we should be able to live without the modern
technology and social media for some few moments – allow ourselves to rest, and
in that sense, to be truly awake; maybe even doing so in the early morning
hours, experiencing the quality of life’s simplicity – as Thoreau has raved
about 150 years ago.
MarketingChartsStaff. January 9, 2013. Social Networking Eats Up 3+ Hours Per Day For The Average American User.Online resource. Web. 5 January 2014. <http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/social-networking-eats-up-3-hours-per-day-for-the-average-american-user-26049/>
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. New Haven/London:
Yale University Press, 2006. Print.
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