The Smarter the Phone, the Smarter the Human?
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” - Oscar Wilde
According to the American Institute of Health, the average entertainment-based screen time for children 8-18 years old is ~8 hours. This does not include school-issued computer time or homework-related activities. Adults are not much different, although it is split between 4 hours of work-related screen time and 4 hours of phone-based entertainment.
The implications of this statistic are rather profound. Our behaviors, in many ways, have become increasingly repetitive and reflexive. How often have we watched the TikTok brain set in?…where the individual sits down, becomes immediately hypnotized, and does not look up or become aware of their surroundings for several hours.
We all are guilty of it, and indeed how could we not be? Are we fully to blame?
Video gaming addiction has been classified by the American Institute of Health as a medical disorder. This should be indicative of our first concern. The allure of sedentary entertainment is so powerful that even the most resolute minds cannot resist. How could they? It is comfortable, enjoyable, and satisfies the itch. It is, in medical terms, hardly different from illicit drugs, and given the practice of tech moguls withholding their products from their own children, the adage “don’t get high on your own product” further reinforces the parallel.
In 1776, when our independence as a nation was formally declared, the American colonists sought to begin building a society that entrusted freedom to its members, granting them the power to act according to their disposition. Within these parameters, their ability to create was unhindered…providing the medium for a competitive business structure, whose success was determined by their ability to outdo each other. The free market sought to engage the highest aspirations of mankind, incentivizing ingenuity with a competitive edge and was set loose in an era of technological prowess.
Regardless of political sentimentality today, it is undeniable that the capitalistic mantra of the age has shifted like a camouflaged serpent. No longer is the aspiration to make the best product, rather…it is to make the best consumer. The product does not have to be excellent as long as it is going to sell. It is, in a sense…mutual mediocrity, which has been mutually agreed upon.
This is not to say that all (even most) products are mediocre in their innovation and design. The iPhone is a thing to behold…with processing power so far beyond the scope of anything we could have conceived of 50 years ago. No, indeed the technology is incredible. It is the consumer who has become mediocre…seduced by entertainment, and unable to set it aside in order to produce something of value.
In Our Only World: 10 Essays, Wendell Berry defines the ideal patron as one who is:
“Scared for health, afraid of death, bored, dissatisfied, vengeful, greedy, ignorant, and gullible -- these are the qualities of the ideal consumer. Can we imagine a way of education that would turn passive consumers into active and informed critics, capable of using their own minds in their own defense?”
The desire, indeed the mission, of the consumeristic-driven culture that we are drifting alongside, is for each individual to be as oriented towards consumption trends as possible, maximizing revenue through instinctual behavioral response, rather than carefully informed deliberation.
With the rise of mass media, and now AI-driven algorithms, we can see how there is now a profit incentive baked into the “machine” to nudge us away from being a creative, joyful, friendly, ambitious, sacrificial person with lots of friends, a wife or husband we adore, and a growing family. All of those things make for a terrible consumer, and Wendell Berry is suggesting that there is a thumb on the scale, making it harder for us to delay gratification, pursue things that are noble and interesting, and exercise our faculties in a way that produces good in the world around us. After all, people who are selfless in attitude and in practice are slow to self-indulge.
Let us now picture a city close to home: Savannah. If you compare Savannah to Statesboro, the scale clearly favors one over the other: the number of restaurants/cafes/boutiques/job opportunities… One has a river running through it, is closer to the beach, has a more lively musical scene, etc… If financial burdens and local friendships were out of the equation, how many of us would choose Savannah as our new home?
Yet alternatively, what would the world look like if all people at every time thought in this consumptive framework? Would there have been a Renaissance if Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci had merely lamented that they were not born in the heyday of Ancient Greece? Would there be a Savannah if the settlers sat around moping that this new land had none of the culture or infrastructure of a well-established London?
The very founding of Savannah highlights a mindset that we would do well to foster: James Oglethorpe, inspired by the memory of his friend who died in a debtor’s prison in London, peacefully negotiated the land with the leader of the Yamacraw Band, a man named Tomochichi, who was an admirable leader who sought to preserve the welfare of his people. It was Oglethorpe’s and Tomochichi’s collaborative efforts that allowed one of the most beautiful cities on the East Coast to come to fruition. This land became, “Savannah,” as a team of architects and engineers quickly began work on the southern colony’s first planned city.
With all of the minds that arrive on Georgia Southern’s campus each year, there is certainly a wealth of capability and opportunity in our midst. Could we not over time work to create a similar charm for would-be travelers? With enough passionate hearts, minds, and souls, who’s to say that Statesboro might not one day have more culture, more vibrance, and more allure than Savannah?
Infinitely more important than the place we live is the friends and the type of friends we make. Remember that cliche? “What will you think about on your deathbed?” It usually goes: you won’t think about that test you studied so hard for, nor the success you found in your career; you will think of all the memories with friends and family.
Yet beyond that image is a deeper question: What type of person attracts the best friends? If I spend all my days rewatching the same TV series, scrolling through my phone, and spending every weekend, “seeing the world…” I may have “buddies,” but a certain depth is missing. It brings to mind an old quote, that, “Friendship is born when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one..’” And so it seems that a certain depth in a soul is necessary for the deeper bonds of community. True friends cannot be bought, nor can they be merely found. True friendship is forged. It takes a common drive in the direction of mission, ideas, and belief. There may still be the simple moments of laughter, shared joy around food and drink, a general attitude of thankfulness, but these things are all the sweeter when they are shared in pursuit of a much greater and grander vision of life.
The tragedy of the pig: Its whole life is spent facedown in the mud; only when it is dead on its back does it get a glimpse of the heavens and stars above.
May we live more nobly than the pig.
T. Wright
C. Scott
