As I sip my hot chocolate with whip cream from Starbucks at the UVU library I can’t help but feel oddly like I own the school. I look out over all the students from my spot I’ve designated for myself through the glass side rail from the second floor level. Leaning on my backpack which I’ve discovered doubles as a very comfy pillow I think to myself, I’m definitely not the smartest person here, but just looking at all those students staring glazedly into their laptops and texting uncontrollably on their phones I think, we are a zombie race of humans! Brainwashed by laptops and bound as if with thick chains to our phones and iPods. It’s incredibly relieving to see the one or two people reading the newspaper or actual books with paper pages, or even just conversing with another human being uninterrupted by the text fiend.
This thought is only emphasized when I witness the people entering and exiting the UVU shuttles. It’s as if they are cattle being herded from one location to the other. They step on blank faced and zombie like, sit down and pull out their phones and start texting still blank faced, the occasional light minded moo… I mean laugh ensues after a moment as they receive a response text, even most of them with earphones in at the same time, then they step off as they stepped on, like blank faced cattle.
Are we to simply be herded from one location to the next in life with no emphasis on independence and self-awareness? Are we truly a slave zombie race to Apple, and At&t, and all their competitors? Me thinks we are… I remember when the iPods came out and everyone I knew got one, that is except for me and I truly am grateful I didn’t. I feel the same way about Facebook, “the more friendly myspace…” which between the two I liken unto Jim Jones and Oprah Winfrey. Myspace being Jim Jones, (the man responsible for brainwashing more than 900 people into committing suicide) and Facebook being Oprah, (the lady that gives cars to everybody.) They're both fiends but one is more subtle and alluring.
I signed back into my facebook account the other day just to see if I really have been blowing this thing out of proportion with my anti-facebook real life status, and you want to know what I found? I found that I really haven’t been. It zapped out any little bit of doubt in my mind that it would be nice once and awhile to have a facebook because from what I saw in just those few minutes back on, made me realize that I don’t want anything at all to do with the site. Call me a hater with no good reasons, but I say I’ve got reasons that really no avid facebook user would understand.
I’ve discussed my hair-brained, crazy opinions on reality and what is real around us in this life before and one thing that I’ve discovered is that facebook simply is not real. Any bit of good that comes from having a facebook is utterly smothered out by its deafening light-minded banter, which only continually breeds more light-minded banter, which at least to me is the most unattractive thing there is. It’s immature, insincere, un-intimate and very impersonal. It is the exact opposite of what Truth is, and truth is what is real in this life. I’m not the crazy one I’m discovering, everyone else is. Also, it takes our lives away because we put our lives onto it and we think, “well, what will I have if I don’t have a facebook?” You’ll have freedom my friends and more meaningful relationships I can guarantee it, because everything we do ripples into everything else we do and if we’re continually dabbling in shallow, insincere waters (facebook) then we’ll be shallow and insincere in our relationships which only leads to heartbreak.
I was thinking about this a lot today in regards to my ultimate question of “Who I am.” I was told by a close relation of mine the other day that throughout my waves of conflicting characteristic traits and sprinting feelings they could see a string of consistency in who I really am. I took a walk through the University Mall with two of my closest friends today and as I did I just looked at all of the people walking by and all of their diverse looks, and styles, and countenances, and even just the way in which they carried themselves. I thought to myself, I don’t want to walk the way that person is walking, I don’t want to talk the way that person is talking, I don’t want to wear my clothes like that person, I don’t want to surround myself with people like that, but what I do want is to be able to walk as if I were walking through a sacred garden, I want to talk as if I were speaking to the love of my life, I want to wear clothes that outwardly portrait my desire for true beauty, and I want to surround myself with people who love me and want to be with me because I do have those desires.
I feel myself as a growing force in this world that is slowly recognizing something brilliant, something sacred that scholars throughout the generations have sought for within the text of wise-men, yet paradoxically and sadly are unable to attain because of their own wisdom. I feel as though I’m gaining power because I am becoming aware of and acting upon the truths around me. I don’t aspire for that power but I aspire to be whole inside and the only way I’ve found I can be is by staying away from what the world is doing. I want to be freed from the addictions and needs the world forces upon us every single day. It truly is that when we are free we have the greatest power in the universe, and that is truth and love, and if there is anything in the world I truly want, that would be to love unhindered by a facebook status and to truly express it without coarsely displaying it to a world of shallow waters whose inhabitants only banter amongst themselves triflingly.
Well, there it was, I really think it was about time I shared my true feelings on the matter, sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings. Thank you and goodnight.
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