Do We Govern Technology Or Does It Govern Us?

Back when I was about 17 years old, I remember I use to read and write poems everyday. I didn't go out much with friends or did a lot of activities that required a lot of energy. In fact my social life was nowhere near compared to how outgoing I've become later on when I got to university. And that period of self-discovery - which I might add was quite the journey, would not come until around 3years later. 

Anyhow, nowadays I would sit down in a park, a café or a privy place where I could rest and think and open a particularly gripping literary book about... one of the great poets of The Romantic Era; William Wordsworth or John Keats - I'd always carry a pen and record my favourite lines in my notebook. Never have these works of arts, the coffee in my right hand, the sun beaming in my face, the bicycle I may have forgotten to lock would seem so interesting anymore. Even if I managed to ignore these remarkable distractions, I've got my iPod banging heavy music through my perforated ears, my iPhone, my galaxy note, the wonders of the Internet and my all time favourite - as if it can't be emphasised enough, my addiction to Facebook to contend with. At its most vaguest sense, it seems to me technology isn't exactly helping us move forward in the world; its rather holding us back. 

It is most true that the problems of cultural, social and economical contingencies had a lot of impact in influencing the difficulty of getting your work published, to be an established writer, scientist or philosopher back in the days; by this period of time I mean around the 17th century not "West Philadelphia born and raised." But things were just getting discovered, people did not have the same constant distractions so, a boy who did not have the same educational opportunities to go to school would have spent his entire afternoon reading that piece of writing he found in town earlier in the day wherefore no doubt he walked at least 5miles way from home. And then he would sit down and write a novel or two. No wonder Oscar Wilde found the time to write his timeless classics; apart from the abundance of alcohol the only thing preventing him from writing a sonnet or two were the diseased hookers - and he got over that hurdle by liking men. 

Had Aristotle had access to Internet do you think he would've come up with the philosophy of the Aesthetic Man? He would've been distracted by browsing pornography of men in their complete non-filtered bold aesthetic form and being duped into thinking he'll win an Ipad by filling out these misleading survey forms which have hidden subscription fees written at the bottom of the page in the smallest font - you'd think there's a problem with your eyesight. He'd have gotten as far as the pondering of the idea of what constitutes an aesthetic man as he is notified in his blackberry about his Friend Bob who lost his virginity last Friday Night and that would be the end of his deep, philosophical cogitation. 

Or if Isaac Newton had been sitting under the tree playing his PS vita when that famous apple fell on his head ; his first thought wouldn't have been to ponder about the laws of physics, he'd have updated his followers with his misfortune of being; "hit by an apple as it fell under the tree, gonna be a #badday" within the constraints of one-hundred-and-forty characters, on Twitter. And I'm certain Galileo would have found the combination of Red Bull and World Of War Craft much more entertaining than spending his Friday looking into the sky. 

The all-important question is staring right in front of us; are we governors of technology or are we slaves to it? Do you share the same opinions with me? It is true that it is more possible to reach millions of people, to be heard all around the world, to inspire others at the touch a button; but the reality is we just end up diverging ourselves in the electrical contents of the Internet, forever defecated with the endless constraints of useless information. 

It is an easy misconception to make that technology is helping us to move forward - after all, it is an intricate construct of false reality; wherein fact we spend more time telling other people what we are up to or suppose to be doing than actually doing it. It is a matter of opinion that if one should attain their full potential like myself for instance I think I would have to completely let go of my precious gadgets which I consider my life source for my everyday living and be like a modern Shakespeare embracing his destiny to be a poet legend. But first I must update my Facebook status about my newly found feelings of inspiration and "feels like having a burrito for diner tonight."