To Heck With Tech

An entire generation of children are frying their brains with smartphones while their parents sit idly by doing the same, is what is foremost on my mind as the year comes to a close. How have we come to this, I ask myself time and again. We have invented a monster that will destroy us in the long run, make us dumber and more superficial than we already are, finally totally enslaving us. Tech’s uncanny ability to lead us into an artificial digital world is sold as a panacea by hustler billionaire types who wouldn’t know the difference between Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, and Michael Jackson, the pedophile.

Teens’ mental health has been deteriorating for some time now. Smartphones equipped with TikTok and Instagram contain forces that can turn a teenager into a zombie via paralyzing self-consciousness. Adults lacking brains are also vulnerable. According to a 2022 Pew report, 46 percent of teenagers are online all the time. This has not only made parenting far more difficult, but the young seem to be more miserable than ever. Teen suicides are way up, most of their brains deformed by technology. Not to mention the perverts who use tech in order to exploit children.

If I sound too morbid, think back: When was the last time you saw a teen not looking at his smartphone but admiring the nature or the architecture that surrounds him or her? And it gets worse. Digital friends are now replacing human ones, and that goes for romantic partners also. It sounds like a horror movie, but AI “friends” are now replacing real ones. Just think of this for a moment and then reach for the bottle, or for a gun.

I may sound old-fashioned, which I proudly am, but life online cannot even come close to replacing or satisfying the spiritual hunger of human beings. It might pretend to, just like bright lights and come-hither poses lure one into sordid nightclubs, but placing our faith on modernity leaves us blind to one another and what is human. Turn off your screens, says Taki, and start living.

One does that by using one’s brain. Memory and attention span are important. They say that the brain should be used like a muscle, in constant use except when asleep. Reading works the brain just like a crossword puzzle. You use it to picture what the author is describing, and you also are using it when reading a political tract, either by agreeing or disagreeing. The Industrial Revolution meant a labor-saving device had been invented so a machine would do the really hard work like digging, carrying enormous loads, and pushing large objects at speed. Cars replaced horses, and machines replaced slave-like humans. The only thing the Industrial Revolution did not do away with was thought. No machine could think, until now.

Which makes a hell of a lot of dumb people very happy. As the dumb ones are in the majority, the greedy ones in Silicon Valley are on to a winner. I cannot emphasize how important reading, writing, imagining, solving problems, and so on are for the brain. It is arduous but by far the most pleasurable of exercises. Yet most people prefer manual work to using their noodle. Homer was the first to point out that brainpower was the winner after ten years of physical fighting in the Trojan War.

And have you noticed how many thinkers have lived very long lives? Old people who sit all day and night in front of their TV sets are the living dead of our times. In New York City, where I live part-time, there are no more bookstores, except for one on 59th Street in Manhattan and a wonderful one on 93rd and Madison, the Corner Bookstore. But find me one apartment without a TV set and I will show you someone who knows the difference between Rambo and Rimbaud.

Never mind. It is like peeing against a gale. We are now enslaved by tech’s uncanny abilities, our lives defined by an artificial digital world. Our attention span resembles that of a flighty Hollywood good-time girl faced with a dilemma of choosing between a fat producer and a poor but handsome B actor. But happiness is just around the corner: Abandon your screens, all you tech slaves, and magical moments await you, especially if you read a book like The Last Alpha Male out loud. To all Takimag readers, have a very happy new year.

This article was originally published on Taki’s Magazine.

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