The other day I was walking around beautiful San Francisco by the Ferry Building, amazed by the breathtaking sites the city has to offer. I was so caught up in my surroundings that it took me a minute to realize that everyone around me was looking down at their phones or running with headphones in. Thinking more about it, I realized it’s not only San Francisco, but almost anywhere now. Children on iPads in grocery stores, students in classrooms, people in waiting rooms or driving, walking, and people having face-to-face conversations but simultaneously looking at their phones. It’s become an epidemic. How can we be so removed from this world when there are more pressing issues at hand?
You don’t need me to point out all the ways in which people are addicted to screens, it’s the harsh truth. And some addicts need their fix more than others. We have become slaves to technology and we need to break free from this slavery.
While there are some activists in the world trying to make change and raise awareness of local and global issues, the rest of us are pointlessly scrolling through Instagram or walking around playing Pokemon-Go. With the explosion of social media and the world of technology, it’s no wonder our generation has been spending our time with our faces down in screens. I propose we take our heads out of our screens and begin to play a more active role in society.
Not only are there major local concerns including our current water shortage, farmers fighting to keep their small farms afloat, and the detrimental fires that blaze ahead, there are also global issues like the food crisis and starvation, war, and sickness in developing countries that need our attention. However, what may seem like apparent causes of some issues are actually not causes at all. For example, underproduction of food is not the cause of global hunger. Also, simple solutions to the causes may not be as simple as they seem. For example, Food Aid, a government regulated organization, provides surplus food that has been produced under the current value of production to third world countries. When borders are deregulated, meaning that food dumping is permitted across borders, our low cost food puts a stop to local economies and puts a huge strain on farmers in the area who are trying to make a living off their production. If citizens receive our Food Aid at a cheaper price than the farmers there can sell their production at, the farmers suffer.
In the case of Food Aid and many other mission style projects, we are projecting our views on the rest of the world with limited contemplation of the implications of our actions on the economies overseas. When we go on a mission trip with the intention to provide better education or plumbing to a village or town, we need to consider how that town will be able to handle the maintenance of these newly built pipelines or buildings without going bankrupt in the process. We cannot take technologies that are going to make a struggling family struggle all the more while trying to keep a wifi signal.
These global issues need to be recognized as they are, and not as media makes them out to be. Ignorance of millennials in this generation contributes to misinformation. Here’s where you can learn about our Food Crisis:
If we put our energy in better places other than our phones, like raising awareness and becoming involved in changing the system and making new ones, we could break our chains from technological slavery. It may sound far fetched but with each individual’s unique interests, I think we can divide and conquer ways to make a difference in the most sustainable ways for all parties.