How to waste your mind and life with mobile devices and social networking sites

This post is just me thinking out loud about something I find disturbing that has become a normal part of human behavior in the U.S. that I think is robbing people of their true potential- but this is just like.... my opinion maaaaaaaaaan. 

Outsourcing consciousness?

When you’re in a car with someone who is not paying attention to the road and/or the road signs- when they are not using the power of their own mind to find their way but instead they are led by the hand step by step by a mobile device- it makes me wonder what the persons consciousness is being used for at that time.

When someone is walking down the street with mobile device in hand looking for a particular destination or person which they may actually be standing in front of but they never notice because their eyes are glued to their mobile device waiting for instructions- it makes me wonder what they are using their consciousness for at that time other than follow instructions from their mobile device.

When someone is watching a film and the film is not explicitly telling them what is going on in the narrative through hand holding dumbed down dialog and they get “lost” and lose interest and then pull a mobile device out and seek some sort of instant gratification- it makes me wonder what their consciousness is being used for other than the ability to operate the mobile device and maintain it.

When a person can’t stand/sit anywhere in public for 15 seconds without pulling out a mobile device and playing with it- what is it about their own mind/thoughts that makes them so uncomfortable they need to pull out a social pacifier and suck on it incessantly? Are they “too busy” for their own thoughts? What kind of person will this create over time?

When a person takes a photo of and/or documents EVERYTHING they do so they can post it on a social networking site that they have no financial stake in- why? Do they not exist without the recognition they receive after posting it?

Observing these behaviors makes me believe that being alone with your own thoughts and/or having to use your own mind to make decisions/problem solve is a terrible thing to endure as these people seem to avoid it like the plague- have people ALWAYS wanted to avoid this or has something else created the anxiety they seek to avoid?

It also makes it seem like they feel like they are nothing- like they don’t exist or matter if they are not recognized by/receiving feedback from a social network- that’s some twisted shit 0_o

It really does seem in these moments that these people have outsourced their consciousness- they stopped using their own mind to solve problems, make decisions, and feel fulfilled and have instead rely on this external device to do it for them. 

They stopped listening to their own thoughts- to their own mind and listen to the mobile device or the social networking chatter instead- were these the same people who were raised by the television/mass media and allowed it to dictate their behavior/decisions?

Instead of being in the now- in the moment- their consciousness is taken, housed and controlled by that mobile device. Its like the reverse of Buddhism.

Instead of thinking for themselves they consult and follow the instructions of a faceless mega group think from the social network. Life by committee 0_0 Thats terrifying.

I’d like to make a distinction as well- submitting relevant thoughts/ideas to a discussion on github is a lot different than talking about what you ate on Facebook- so of course there are very useful discussion/activities that we can participate in- I’m talking about the frivolous shit- and spending tons of time on frivolous shit everyday for long periods of time.

When someone is in public around other humans in a physical space and is talking/texting on their mobile device- they are not with the humans in their physical space and they are not with the human they are talking/texting with- so where are they? Where is their consciousness? Are they avoiding the people they are in a physical space with or avoiding themselves?

All this behavior seems really odd to me as I’ve never owned a fully working mobile device- I have one but its never had a sim card and I only really use it as a camera. So when I am interacting with people in person I am %100 there- I’m not checking/using a phone when I’m interacting with people and when it comes to everywhere I’ve been in the past few years that puts me in the minority.

I’ll be standing/sitting somewhere surrounded by people all on their phones and I’m the only one looking around- I usually just smile and laugh to myself because they are so fucking weird- these “normal” people?!

I remember when mobile phones popped up they were only used by people that actually needed them for work- business people whose livelihood depended on their timely return of phone calls/communication- that makes sense to me as they didn’t chit chat they had a purpose-

I remember the world before everyone had a mobile device glued to their heads- and the earth still spun- and people seemed much more aware of their surroundings- AND much more comfortable with themselves-

Your own personal reality show

Nowadays the majority of Americans are convinced that they “need” a mobile device at all times because their so busy and important right- yeh I know everybody is a fucking CEO these days except their “business” is generating ad revenue money for Facebook or some brain dead mobile game by playing on it at every free moment-

I forget that you have to constantly talk to and text everyone you know all day and night- I mean they say they love you now but 6 minutes have passed maybe they don’t anymore?! Better check!

AND you have to let everyone you know what you are about to eat and what you are doing at all times and where you are because they just couldn’t go on without knowing- could they? Because we’re all so important now as fucking rockstar CEO celebrities aren’t we?

Don’t forget to take a photo of yourself and post it everyday as yeah they may have forgotten what you looked like/and or existed- and yes you can receive the “likes” THE PRECIOUS LIKES

This is what all the social network/mobile device marketing bullshit spells out to me- that you DESERVE and can have YOUR OWN PERSONAL REALITY SHOW because you’re so cool now that you’ve joined social network site X and have become a part of the data mining and ad revenue generating farm for the corporation behind the site.

That is you, combined with your mobile device and Facebook/social networking account- yup now you are SO AWESOME because you managed to purchase something, power it on, type/spoke some words into some text entry fields and are now generating revenue for some big corporations- good on you! 

Every muthafucker wants to be famous in Murica so they all fucking flocked to it and continue to circle jerk, argue, fight, and waste their lives for Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and all the others- and what do they get out of it? “likes” that they can check on a $400 phone they pay $100/month for to be cool?  You gotta be fucking kidding me?!

The tradeoff looks like this to me- waste your mental energy, focus, time and eventually your ability to maximize your potential as a human being in exchange for a constant stream of meaningless instant gratification and feedback just to make some big corporation that doesn’t give a fuck about you richer. Well they do care about you- they just want you to keep using it and never leave.

Have you ever tried to leave or have left Facebook? Were there people that were concerned about you leaving? I’m going to say that they care not about you- they were concerned because one of their like-bots was going away- one less person to “like” everything they post in the big personal reality show circle jerk. LIKE ME and I’ll LIKE YOU! WOW WE’RE ALL SO LIKED! WE’RE AMAZING?! 

Back to the fucking phones ^_^

How/why was everyone convinced that they NEEDED a mobile device? Through mass marketing of course- to generate shit tons of money of course! In case of emergency- yeah I totally get it as you might walk into a telephone pole while texting and need to call an ambulance.

Its made it worse that mobile devices have become “status symbols” gotta get an iPhone so you can be cool- when I was a kid the marketers made it so kids treated you like a piece of shit if you didn’t have fancy Nike’s so now I guess its the same with iPhone’s?

How many generations are going to live and die not seeing the con? Human behavior has been constantly manipulated and controlled by ad agencies to maximize corporate profits? 

They want you to feel like a loser or a piece of shit if you don't buy/own what they are selling- and if you do buy it then they want you to feel important- like you now have value that that object gives to you until it gets old THEN you have to get the NEW ONE to keep that feeling of self worth-

Do you want the thing because you really want it or need it? Or has marketing made you think that? Marketing can speak through anyone when it comes in the “word of mouth” form by the way-

Its a huge fucking con- the over-reliance on these devices and services causes people to be weaker- the phones are gaining features while the people who use them as social and intellectual pacifiers are losing abilities-

When people choose to pacify their kids with mobile devices instead of talking to them/dealing with them what is that going do to the kids social skills? What will you grow up to be like when no one engages you fully as they are pre-occupied with a mobile device? 

People have more online “contact” but are lonelier in their real lives- they are more open online but fucking lost and terrified in real life-

The over-reliance of these devices causes people to become socially handicapped- They are unable to operate in real world social situations without huge amounts of anxiety if they don’t have their precious little phone Binky to tap or talk on while they bury their face in it and outsource their consciousness- they are terrified to talk to you if you aren’t already a Facebook friend-

When you bury your face in your phone- the outside world doesn't go away- you are just avoiding it- it can still see you and/or rob you- I would think criminals who partake in strong arm robbery must love phone zombies- so easy to rob!

Make eye contact with one of these people in public and they might just fall down in terror- good thing they have their iPhone so they can ask Siri how they are supposed to get up-

Zombies maaaaan mobile device zombies!

I've seen people argue that the phone staring phenom is the same as peoples behavior with newspapers in the 1940's yeah sure but they weren't talking into their newspapers or reading them while they drove or taking photos of their own face/food constantly with the newspaper- 

These anxious phone zombies- they always look like they feel itchy without their phones out - then the phone comes out and they have again avoided being in the now or like thinking their own free thoughts-

They act like having time to think freely and openly on any topic of their choosing is a bad thing- a horrible thing to be avoided- better to instead play Candy Crush or check Twitter/Facebook- or text someone to tell them how bored they are-

If you do anything where you actually have to think/problem solve you’ll know that this mental free-time is where a lot of serious work gets done- without it and you’re just an automaton that performs tasks and actions according to instructions provided by someone/something else.

The thing that puzzles me with this behavior is since the person that relies on a mobile device as an outsourced consciousness is not using their mental energy and focus to navigate, problem solve, think critically etc- where is that mental energy and focus going? Is it being used at all? And if you don’t use it- is it lost?

Nothing is lost right? Its just that you are this busy now right? Not really- it just makes you think you are busy- try not using your phone/social networking sites for a day and you’ll see how busy you really are- you might be surprised.

I think a person thats exhibits this behavior would argue that they are spending their mental energy and focus on more important things- now if you’re a hard working student, coder, a scientist etc or someone who has intellectual/conceptual challenges to overcome- sure this makes total sense- don’t use your mental energy or focus on mundane tasks so you can solve more complex problems- but where does that leave everyone else? The other large percentage of people in the U.S. today?

What are they using their consciousness for? Where does it go?

I’m going to say that if have outsourced your consciousness to these devices and services what your losing is your ability to become anything but a mindless consumer drone in the long run- you are insuring that you will wallow in mediocrity when considering Maslow’s hierarchy of needs- sure you can survive- but when you were a kid didn’t you have dreams that were bigger than just surviving and reproducing? Bigger than becoming a model, stable consumer?

The corporations will applaud and praise you for being the model consumer and buying all their shit- and so will everyone else who bought that con- but you will realize you were ripped off at some point in life-

You wanted to do something- you wanted to be someone- you wanted to be defined by other means than what YOU OWN or what team you like- you wanted to be your own person NOT defined by what you own- or what you "like"

At some point we were programmed to believe that our self worth comes from our buying power- that our worth is dictated by what we own- that is total bullshit- those lies were created by the marketing created by ad agencies hired by corporations to maximize profits- ruin peoples lives and crush their dreams? They don’t give a shit as long as their profits go up-

We ALL have the ability to do great things- to use the power of our minds to achieve great things- where is your power going? Facebook? Some online game? Into writing intricate texts about where you are and what you are doing all day?

I believe that we live in the age of ideas- in that the tools to do anything you want to do are EASIER and more accessible than ever before- its easier than ever to realize YOUR IDEAS! TO DO AND BE WHO and WHAT YOU WANT!

So why would you waste your time and life tapping on a phone or talking about meaningless shit on some social network? You have better things to do!

I know or have known so many people with so much potential that waste/wasted it on this meaningless activity- Why? To make some corporation richer? 

They get to midlife and are miserable only then realizing they made the wrong choices in giving their freedom and life away in exchange for material goods and social acceptance-

Think of it this way- when you are facing death are Facebook likes going to ease your mind and soul? 

No they are not- fulfilling your dreams will-

So get off your fucking phone- stop babysitting your Facebook account and start chasing your dreams! LEARN! THINK! GROW! LOOK AROUND! IMPROVISE!

Act like a PLAYER not a poorly programmed NPC!

This ridiculous time in human history will pass with people glued to phones and playing on social networking sites for corporate profit. We’re going to look back and LAUGH at photos like this

This will NOT always be- so don’t waste your time and life-

Its an opportune time because of all the accessible tools to learn and do whatever it is we want to do because of this technology- but its also a very dangerous time if you aren’t disciplined because of all the shiny distractions that seek to eat up your time and life.

Stay away from them for awhile and start listening to your own thoughts- WHO ARE YOU? and WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO? 

If you are an artist/creative type-we all want recognition- its a lot easier to make something or write something in 5 minutes and get instant gratification/recognition on Facebook than it is to spend hours/weeks/months/years on the thing we really want to do-  so don’t let it quench your thirst for greatness!

Unless you think in 20 years there will be art gallery shows titled “Best Facebook Posts of 2015” or concerts of “Best youtube lip sync cover song video of 2013” or best selling e-books titled “Most awesome tweets of 2014” NO- nobody is going to fucking care about any of that- 

Its 2015 and there’s no recognition for “Best Myspace posts of 2003” do you think that will change?

My views are counter to the popular opinion so I thought I would post them here- if I can help one person who wants to leave the circle of mobile phone dependance and social networking addiction to pursue bigger and better things then thats awesome.

And yeah- this is just like my opinion maaaaaaaaaan.