Are people becoming technological zombies?

Servants of Our Own Invention

- By Sarah Khan

The world has witnessed various changes in the human lives throughout the history. In the recent years, technological changes have overpowered many traditional ways of working. From schoolchildren to job and business professionals, technology has transformed every sphere, providing ease to their lives. However, slowly and gradually people are getting dependent on technology to such an extent that it seems like they’re becoming technological zombies.

The internet was originally invented to enable easy and decentralized communication during the Cold war for research and military purposes. However, with the elapse of time, the internet expanded to platforms for shopping (Myntra, Amazon etc), education (Unacademy, Vendantu, Byjus etc), digital payments (Paytm, Gpay etc), food delivery (Zomayo, Swiggy etc), grocery shopping (Zepto, Blinkit etc), travelling (Uber, Ola) for convenience to fast moving lives. The internet that provided employment to many, also reduced the hard work and creativity our ancestors used to bring in their routines.

Every day begins with a phone in hand and ends with the constant social media scrolling. According to a survey conducted by PubMed Central (PMC), the average screentime worldwide has reached approximately 6 to 7 hours, accounting for roughly 44% of the waking hours which includes computers, smartphones and TV’s. Dialogues have rediuced to messages, real emotions have reduced to emojis, ideas have reduced to AI prompts and books have reduced to pdfs. Apart from phones taking hold of our everyday routines, the AI bots have hijacked our ways of thinking. Although AI has led to the news ways of learning, it has also limited the creativity and originality of ideas. The hard work one needs to explore things by his or her own has been robbed by technology. Every time a person doubts something, he or she would quickly look up to Chat gpt or Meta AI to resolve the question quicker without putting on their thinking caps to find out answers. They’re sharing personal issues with AI to suggest solutions reducing their independent analytical thinking skills. The reason for oversharing to AI is also that people these days rely less on other humans than on AI with their personal issues.

According to researches, excessive screen exposure leads to reduction in attention span and disruption in sleep cycle. Back then, people used to spend quality time with families during their spare time while nowadays they pick up phones during their leisure time to scroll reels. This has made people emotionally disconnected. Social media connections have made people chase validation online, leading to insecurities as they watch unrealistic beauty ideals with edited and filtered photos. Today’s youth consider likes and followers as the benchmark of their self-worth and even few parents are exposing minor children to social media for making money. This is leading to mental health problems like anxiety, loneliness and depression.

In order to ensure that youth harnesses technology without becoming zombies, the schools and colleges should arrange digital awareness programs and further promote outdoor activities, hobbies, reading and social interactions. The concept of “digital detox” stands relevant today. Simple solutions such as turning off notifications temporarily, deactivating social media accounts might break the cycle of distractions.

The fact that technology has progressed us in terms of education, healthcare and employment indicates that the problem is not technology, it’s how we use it. The only best way to prevent ourselves from becoming technological zombies is to maintain a balance between real life and technology. It’s better we realise this early before we become the servants of technology that was made to serve us.