By:Gerard M.
It would be false to say that our generation no longer discusses the state of our world, recite Whitman, or study Keynes and Aristotle – but the vital change lies in our capacity for action. In Walden, Thoreau writes: “When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanence and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadows of the reality.” It’s a shame that the word “unhurried” no longer exists in the lexicon of our generation. Perhaps “wise” will be the next to go, and afterward we will be left petty under our fears and pleasures.Titanic growth and innovation in digital technology has rendered us inseparable from our screens. According to a recent report from the United Nations, more people have mobile phones than access to a flush toilet – by a margin of 2.5 million. The alarming universality of access to this brave new digital world means that we have the ability to be constantly connected, constantly gripped by words and images contrived from pixels. On one hand, we no longer have to flip through volumes at the library or peruse the small print of newspapers to access information. But on the other hand, the permanent presence of social networks, games and applications on our phones and computers makes it easier than ever before to waste hours on text messaging, cyber interaction, and achieving new high scores. We love to be entertained, and we yearn for it like junkies because feeling good has never been made so easy. We do not have to consider moral consequences when watching The Bachelor, liking posts on Instagram or playing Flappy Bird. The hours are more easily passed because entertainment does not demand active engagement. We only have to sit in front of our screens with blank minds, go through the motions, and smile at the captivating colours.
The appeal of social media and networking is that they feed our desire to be noticed, to be awarded attention; it is the self-contradicting idea that we must fit in with the masses, yet at the same time boldly asserting our individuality. This mentality is vital to the denial of morality by our generation, as the combination of permanent access to the digital world and the relentless bombardment from the entertainment industry provides the incentive and the answer to our desire to be extraordinary. We adore celebrities because they inspire imitation and present possibilities – we are obsessed with the idea that celebrities are normal people. Reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians want us to believe that celebrities deal with the same things we do – grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, making dinner – and allow us to “relate” to them, while shows like American Idol tell us that any ordinary person can become a star. Each individual, then, is able to find a personal connection – a song lyric, a hairstyle, a brand of perfume – that makes him or her stand out. We create for ourselves the illusion of individuality and potential. Entertainment conditions and encourages our inner narcissists, making us believe that we are all special, worthy of praise, deserving of celebrity status – that what we have to say is important.
Social networking has given us the platform upon which we can express and assert our individuality. Places like Facebook and Twitter ask us the blaring question: WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? In this way, we are invited to share our every thought, every moment, and are given the ability to meticulously engineer our own digital personalities. It is much easier to edit our Facebook profiles than to assess our personal shortcomings, and in the digital world, these shortcomings can simply be hidden, glossed over, denied. In this sense, when we interact through social networks, we do not interact with each other, but with perfected projections. Through features such as “likes”, “retweets” and comments, we can receive the attention that we believe we deserve. We are addicted to social networks because they give us praise and recognition for saying irrelevant and uneducated things, posting provocative or self-indulgent photos, or for the ever-so-classy “Like for a TBH.” We have become so obsessed with being heard that we have stopped considering if what we are saying truly needs to be said.
The narcissism which has been conditioned into our very nature, and the easy gratification of this narcissism by entertainment and social media, is the foundation of our moral and social apathy. The issue is not whether or not we choose to care, but whether or not we realize that we should. We have forgotten moral consciousness – that we must consider the consequences of our words and actions, that we are a part of society which extends beyond personal pleasures. Without moral consciousness, there is no education, and without education, there is no future.
Education is no longer the keystone to civilization. Its necessity has been undermined by a culture which endorses blind comfort, and taking the easiest way. To deserve the attention of students, the teacher, material, and environment must not only inform, but more importantly, entertain. Anything deemed “boring” is not worth our time. We fall asleep leaning on windows, we flip through Twitter feeds, or simply stare into space. Thinking has become work, and work has become undeserved punishment. We attend school because we have to, not to enhance our understanding of the world and better our moral being. We form opinions not upon research and moral consideration, but upon unfounded arrogance and generalizations. We antagonize those who refuse to comply with our laziness, those who give us not the grades we believe to be entitled to, but the grades which reflect our effort. We blame those who push us to work harder. We attack feverishly those who disagree with our uninformed yet assertive thoughts, those who point out our hypocrisy. We ostentatiously vocalize our discontent regarding things we are too lazy to understand. But how can we begin to consider morality when we can no longer find in ourselves the timeless desire for truth? We have let down the children behind the barricades of the French Revolution, in front of the tanks of Tiananmen Square, and under the fires of the Arab Spring. To be entertained, to receive what we want and deserve, to gratify every itching inclination, and to be blissfully ignorant of the consequences – for us, that is enough.
We have built for ourselves a world of illusions, in which we are all celebrities, deserving of praise and attention; in which we are entitled to anything and everything; in which we expect to be forever entertained; in which we aspire to greatness while doing nothing. But this is not the real world. The real world moves on without us, abandoned by a generation trapped in our beautiful projections, Hollywood dramas and Starbucks Coffee. Abandoned by we who want so much yet do so little –
We, who are the greatest illusion of all.
