The Online World: A Prison with No Bounds

Next time you go to the dining hall, look around and notice the number of people who are on their phones while eating instead of engaging with one another. In an age of technological tyranny, it is widely accepted for people to act like this — even I am often guilty of retreating to my phone at meals from time to time.

This phenomenon is nothing new — the world as we know it is overridden with an abundance of smartphones, laptops, and countless other blue-light devices. The surplus of technology and the emergence of the online world lends itself to dual interpretations. On one hand, humans are closer than ever, in that we can readily connect with others to have meaningful relationships without the preoccupation of distance.

On the other hand, we have never been further apart. While we are all glued to our screens, necks craned down to scrutinize through the lens and safety of our devices, we slowly separate ourselves from one another. We are at a point in humanity where people value their online presence and screen time over curating valuable connections with one another, face to face and without hiding behind a screen.

We are simply so absorbed in ourselves and how others may perceive us that we are blind to the simplest pleasures of life around us. This can be anything from spending time with loved ones to the serene atmosphere of nature. Therefore, though the online world has provided society with a way to communicate efficiently with the tap of a finger, it is slowly becoming the bane of human existence and may eventually become its greatest downfall.

As a kid, I viewed the internet as a sacred thing — something that I could only use if it were rewarded through my good actions as deemed by my parents. I fondly remember Saturday mornings in elementary school, as that was the day my brother and I played on our Wii. We spent the entire day competing against each other in fun games, from Wii Sports to Mario Kart.

Not only do children now have unlimited access to games on the internet, but most of them have unlimited and unrestricted access to the entirety of the internet. A study by Stanford Medicine shows that about 25% of children have their first phones at 10.7 years old, and 75% have one by 12.6 years old.

With complete access to the internet, people of all ages share a common space online — social media. Thus, younger generations are aging faster than ever. In particular, many young girls look up to the older, female-presenting content creators showing their skincare and makeup routines and wish to replicate such behaviors. Thus, the rise of “Sephora kids” and other such phenomena are prevalent today. The effects of social media on children are only starting to become apparent and will grow clearer as the generations of children with phones get younger and younger.

For many students in college, balancing social media with our actual lives is a tricky situation with many challenges in itself. I have frequently found myself doom scrolling on my phone instead of doing my homework. I have even had to delete multiple social media apps off of my phone because I cannot control myself to use them moderately when they are on my phone.

YouTube hosts many videos with tips on how to have a “digital detox” that all explain how you can get your life back from the clutches of technology. The prevalence of step-by-step manuals that teach us how we can get away from the influence of technology and learn how to be human again makes the invisible control of the online world all the more apparent. Most of the videos talk about completely deleting social media, changing your phone to grayscale so everything is black and white, and cutting off all connections with other people other than the bare minimum.

This approach is too extreme. Since we have reached a point where the online world is integrated into our lives, we cannot just push it away. Instead, we must learn to live with it, and doing as these detoxification videos tell us will not lead to desirable results. My version of the “digital detox” consists of realizing that if I am not doing anything of importance on my phone — like scrolling through TikTok, aimlessly watching YouTube videos, and other activities of the sort — and forcing myself to put my device down and interact with the world around me, whether I am alone or with other people. It’s as simple as that. Though the influence of the online world and technology has shifted quite drastically from what it used to be like when we were children, we must learn to live with this change and interact with it in a way that doesn’t compromise our humanity.

The same can be said about online art. As with all art forms, online art has its way of expressing the emotions that an artist feels through mediums like digital drawings, videos, films, and much more. Though the online world cannot be seen as a means for us to escape the real world, all art — no matter its form — fuels our imagination and urges us to think about the world around us in a different, more appreciative way. As technology and the online world continue to bleed into the world as we know it, it is important that we adapt along with it — or else it might fully consume us one day.