This post might closely relate to my previous one, where I talked about the presentation about ubiquitous photography and Web 3.0, but first of all I think that both of these issues closely relate to my project idea and second, after that presentation, we had a very interesting conversation in class about our excessive use of smartphones, which kind of inspired me to write a post about my own experience and my thoughts on the topic.
When I started thinking about my project idea, I had no clue that the deeper I would go into it and into research about it, the stronger it would affect how I would see the people around me and their habits.
And for some, this project idea might seem too easy because 'everybody's got a smartphone and plays around with it', but there is much more thinking to it than that.
Maybe my project isn't the most inventive or creative one, and maybe my shots aren't gonna be the best, but I do have to say that this project is enormously interesting, emotional and frightening, because it is so contemporary and actually reflects one of the rising social issues that our society nowadays has to deal with. You might wonder why I use the word 'frightening' to describe my project, because after all people hanging together on there phones isn't really frightening, but if you invest some thoughts into it and think about the personal, social and longterm consequences, it is something to be seriously scared of, because it shows that we increasingly lose touch to reality and risk to drown in the endlessly deep ocean of the world wide web. I'm scared that this is going to happen sooner or later, because I know that I am a part of this issue and the more I look up from my phone at the people around me on their phones, the more it scares me, because I feel like we're hundreds of miles away from each other, although we're sitting in the same room, right next to each other.
I started shooting for my project a couple of days ago, and I wanted my friends and family to model for me, so I thought I was just going to tell them where and how they should sit and when they should play around with their phones, but funny enough, I didn't even have to tell them to take out their phones and pretend to focus on them, because whenever I was silent or just turned my back for a second, all of them started taking their phones out immediately to check their emails or social network accounts. What I want to emphasize is that this project is SO REAL! Even while shooting I constantly get confronted to the issue, without even having to stage-manage any of the scenarios.
I really think that I couldn't have chosen a better topic, because I'm surrounded by it and I'm affected myself, as well. Often when I'm in the restaurant with my parents and they talk about something that I'm not really interested in, I just take out my phone and start scrolling through Facebook, it's like a reflex, I don't even notice it. My sister usually does the same thing, and once my parents have finished their conversation and realize that none of us is listening, they also start to check on their phones for a second, and quickly the second becomes 15-30 minutes, and when I then look up from my screen because I wonder why it suddenly got so quiet around me, I see all of these people I love spending time with, sitting each on their own with their phones, and it kind of makes me really sad, but at the same time I know that I'm no better than them, and that (to be honest) that's just how we function in the 21st century, we totally depend on our phones and as soon as we feel the slightest amount of boredom or insecurity overcoming us, we immediately escape into our online communities.
Since, I'm at uni I don't really get to see most of my friends from home very often and whenever I then get to see them it is just the best thing ever, but last time when I went for coffee with my friend and we talked and talked and talked she just constantly stared at her phone or messaged someone, even when I asked her something she wouldn't answer because she hadn't even listened to what I've said, and that really made me angry to the point that I just stood up, told her I had to leave quickly and went home, my head full of anger, but my heart aching of sadness. There are a lot of emotions involved in this topic, anger, fear and sadness, feelings that you wouldn't think the use of a phone could actually cause you.
However, to end this, what turns out to be, a very personal reflection on the topic, I want to reflect on something we discussed in class today: the expression Generation Z.
People born between the 1990s and now are often referred to as Generation Z, because they grew up with the Internet and the rise of new technologies. So the expression basically refers to the digital generation, but what is kind of frightening, or maybe just shocking to me is that the Z is often said to be standing for Zombies, and considering that zombies are generally defined as ' the living dead', this little expression says an awful lot about this generation, a generation that I am also part of...
No comments:
Post a Comment