1 Word to Describe all That is Wrong With the Modern World
Entitlement.
Technology has enforced upon society the conditions whereby everybody requires instantaneous gratification. We want acknowledgement of everything we do all the time and we seek to maintain the attention of a large populous of strangers and acquaintances we couldn’t really care about but depend upon to feel good about ourselves.
Instead of seeking the respect of those we love and cherish we outsource our self-esteem to the interweb and define out worth from the currency we are able to attain on social networks. We no longer measure the quality of our lives by the kindness we gift to the world or the positive impact we have on other people’s lives but by the proliferation of our social media footprint.
My video has more likes that you therefore I have more friends and I am a better person has replaced I have done good things and I care deeply about other people. The more selfish you are the better, we are the stars of our own life and drama caused in the name of gaining attention is positive.
Infamy is pursued as a means to an end and it doesn’t matter who you hurt to get it.
Technology is detrimentally effecting a whole generation. It has infected our lives and conquered our minds. We no longer experience the present we find ways to capture it to disseminate it to the world in order to gain credibility and approval.
We no longer see to understand, we see to boastfully show others how awesome our lives are. Social media is a competition organised to make you feel better at the expense of other people. It’s not about sharing the critical elements of your life, it’s about curating a fantasy world you can convince other people to believe.
We are entitled because we have to be. It’s the only way to protect ourselves from our own inadequacy. If we faced up to the reality of our own self-worth it would consume us. Never has so much knowledge been so easily consumed by the whole of humanity but instead of exploiting this opportunity we create an abundance of useless data which monopolies exploit to market our souls for advertising dollars.
The low hanging fruits of life have been picked. The only people who care about what happens to each individual is themselves. You see a flat lining of the standard of living and a swelling of government debt married to a population which is aging and you understand why it has happened.
Trump is indicative of this personal entitlement. We see that everyone else is in it for themselves so we act accordingly. If you don’t you are an idiot. Nationalism is derided but personalism isn’t?
We have been encouraged to pursue our own path — to find outselves and pursue the things which we love. What if we have been lied to and believing in your true self restricts your choices and forces you to become a self- important, entitled asshole?
The problem with modern society is that it rewards those who can keep our attention. Irrespective of whether you are a force for good or tremendous damage society has become immune to the difference.
Attention is money and if you can maintain it you can exploit eyeballs. That is all life has become. An inordinate volume of early resources have been consumed by the most frivolous pursuit imaginable. The worlds most talented engineers no longer work on crafts to explore the stars they work on algorithms to take advantage of our preferences in the hope of taking our money.
It’s only getting worse.
Ultimately I believe it boils down to one question: what is your purpose. I think that is the hardest question in the world to answer and it becomes exponentially more difficult to answer when multiplied by the distractions the modern world offers.
We no longer know what to do because we have too much choice, so we focus on the one thing we do know — ourselves. Modern society is a product of the day’s available technology. When investment is focused on the creation of monolithic tech giants whose only goal is to not be evil the hopes of society fade with each search or posting on facebook.
Humanity has always been one which has followed examples and precedent gratefully — we desperately need an alternative which is less depressing in order to thrive. Entitlement is hard but it is perhaps the only string which ties the people of the modern world to the path — it is the only thing that gives us purpose in our daily lives.
