I came to a very sad realisation this past weekend whilst visiting Prague. I am one of them. One of those who feel the need to post what's happening over social media. One of those who wants to put the location filter on snapchat so someone can see what city I am visiting. I think this is sad.
My phone broke on Saturday, the same day I left for Prague. I tried checking it every 10 minutes to see if the screen was improving but it was indeed just getting worse. I depended on my friends phone to let mumma know I was safe and sound, and kept up to date with my messages and friends by the computer available at the hostel. This was weird.
This feeling of dependency on a machine that does nothing but encourage antisocial behaviour gave me an idea. I wanted to try and not use social media for the month of November, this idea soon vanished when I realised I wouldn't have a phone until around the 12th of November, so instead I decided to only stick with Facebook and use neither Whatsapp (because i physically can't), Spapchat or Instagram. For one WHOLE month. I'll let you know how that goes...
However it did make me breathe Prague in with whole other attitude. I could have repaired my phone while in the city and at the beginning I wanted to but then the thought of having this constantly beeping device on me suddenly put me off the idea. I am so grateful it broke that weekend. I mean I didn't want it to break but kind of glad it did.
On out last day in Prague we had a nice brunch, we relaxed and got over the hangovers and loss of sleep we had experienced the pass few days. We drank lemonade and hydrated. Not having my phone going off every 10 minutes was a liberating feeling. We crossed the Charles Bridge later that day and 9 out 10 people, because I can't say 9 and a half, were on there phones, snapping, taking pics, messaging and other. I noticed the way the water moved, the direction the wind was blowing, the amount of glass windows the castle had in the background, the different shades of pink the sunset was creating, the people in the tiny boat houses along the river banks, the colour of the lighting in all the buildings around us, little things I otherwise would not have noticed.
We have become too accustomed and rely on technology and the Internet instead of learning the practical knowledge of everyday life. What will your phone teach you about a life and death situation? How will an app help you get out of being eaten by a bear. Oh wait, I can imagine it. You're standing in the woods somewhere and a giant grizzly bear approaches, your nerves don't allow you to type anything on Internet. But you can snapchat it. You can get the 5 second footage or quickly ask Siri how to get out of it. Oh no, it's too late. You just got eaten by a bear. Or think of the increasingly known cases of selfie deaths. They don't care they could very well die by taking that selfie on a rock somewhere I don't know how high above sea level. It's cool right? Is it really?
I am all for technology advances and innovating but what happened to the days where phones were for texting and calling only? and playing that snake game on the old nokias. What happened to the terrible photos the disposable camera produced? I miss it. I encourage you all to try and take a break from social media, from the unnecessary apps we have become far too accustomed to. To use a paper map and not GoogleMaps, to use the calling option instead of sending an empty WhatsApp with a few emojis, to not take pictures but try and mentally take in all your surroundings, to laugh with each other and not feel the need for the rest of your so called friends to see. You know that over 50% of the people you have on your social media accounts aren't actually friends. A friend of mine deleted Instagram this weekend because she learned it wasn't good for her right now. Do the same. Give yourselves a chance to see things in a different way. Take a break from all this digitalisation and decrease the amount of hours you spend on your phone. You might just decrease your chance of a brain tumour too. So it is worth a shot. Go anti-social media for November.
Btw, Prague was amazing.
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