Smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops. Endless screens that plaster our walls, sit in our laps, stick to our palms, and mostly, hold onto our eyes. Instead of calling or knocking on the front door, we twiddle our thumbs to send out a message. Cars are crashing, and what was the driver doing? Tweeting about the meal they just ate, or telling their friends that they’ll be there at 8. Technology is both a blessing and a detriment, and it’s time for people to look up.
On April 25, Gary Turk posted a video on YouTube called “Look Up.” This video has accumulated more than 48 million views since being posted and has been commented on almost 50,000 times as well. In the video, Turk reads an original poem about technology taking over as the norm of society. “This media we call social is anything but” is a line from the poem that summarizes its main point. It illustrates the fact that because we are so connected online, it takes away from how we are connected in real life.
Communication has evolved into a chain of networks that allow people to create a new way of sharing. A tweet, a status, a photo, a message — every thought can be sent out into a void of social media. The problem with this is that we have lost our old ways. What happened to speaking face-to-face, which has now turned into a text? What happened to sharing experiences through conversation, which has turned into posting pictures and statuses?
Turk recalls his childhood and how he used to play outside and run around with friends. He calls this modern generation “a generation of idiots with smart phones and dumb people” in his poem. He digs into the idea of being so concerned with being in touch with others online that it is restricting our connections offline. It shows that the problem with using an easy tool to talk to people is consuming our time and attention in a way that takes away from any real-life conversations.
“I think people overall are really distracted by their technology,” said junior Morgan McCane. “Although it’s important, we shouldn’t be so dependent on it.”
Turk’s short poem touches on people’s fascinations with their own lives and the documentation of their everyday experiences, saying it has turned into a way of becoming self-obsessed and putting out an image for others to perceive based on how it is presented to them.
An aspect of social connection has been lost with the use of technology in this generation. The young people growing up in this time period never knew a time without the internet or without i-anything. Children learn how to operate a smartphone before they learn their first words. If parents raise their children to use technology sparingly, it would keep them from growing up to be plugged into a device 24/7.
It’s easy to place blame on technology for consuming our lives simply because it’s there. The real problem starts with people, and the decision to let it take control of our eyes and ears. People can communicate without using their devices. Gary Turk’s powerful poem sheds the lights on the easy solution to this issue: you need to look up.
