Digital zombies

Being on a college campus lately, I’m noticing a huge domination of what is ‘digital zombies’. People are just walking around staring at their smartphone. While they may or may not be texting someone, they are losing the ability to talk to people standing right next to them. At a nearby college to me, someone was able to run around stabbing people in the neck or face because they were all walking around staring at their smartphones.

The issue isn’t the smartphone. It is the ‘digital zombie’. It can be ridiculous to always stare at a computer screen when at home. It is something else to do so outside the house. You could be somewhere, anywhere. The man or woman of your dreams could be there just waiting for you to strike up conversation. There could be an interesting person there who might say something that could change your life. There might even be someone there who has connections to a job you want. But you will never know because you are staring at screen while walking around.

Maybe it is the side effect of getting older, but I feel like people are getting stupider. If people are getting stupider, I blame the digital zombie-ization. The digital zombie doesn’t live in the real world. It lives in some digital fantasy world. It might as well be Brave New World’s version of soma.

Decades ago, the news used to intrude reality onto us. Today, the digital zombie views the news in whatever context or slant that never intrudes reality on us. If the digital zombie believes UFOs have taken over the world, its news habits will find sites that put forth this context and only this context. How do we know what is real? Or rather, how do we get people to care what is real?

My answer to this is finances. How do I know what is real or not real in the Game Industry? Look at the financial statements. What about in business? Same thing. How about a politician’s performance? Check the finances. There is no way to use a context to make a financial statement mean something else entirely. However, what I do see occurring more frequently is a reporter’s interpretation of that financial statement being consumed as if the person is reading reality instead of a filtered viewpoint.

Thanks to the Internet, sizable portions of the population can be isolated in a fantasy world they think is real. You cannot tell these people anything else. The reason why is that they think they are ‘gaining information’ which gives them a considerable high degree of arrogance.

Let’s ask another question: how do you know you have a worthless degree? The answer comes to finances. Is the degree bringing in more money than you paid to get it? If the answer is yes, then it is not worthless. Finances is the only thing I know that can clear away people’s arrogance and show them a reality especially a reality they will not like.

When the Internet came about, many hailed it as a utopian innovation. I knew better. The printing press didn’t hail in a utopia of literacy and learning. Instead, it fostered rhetoric and lies. Wars began to be fought over how things were printed. I am afraid the Internet will have more harm to the Human condition than good.

Digital zombies? What could possibly wake them up? I don’t think they will ever wake up. They will die digital zombies. It is an idle lifestyle that really rots one’s soul, makes one feel angry and unsatisfied with life.

Digital Zombies are pissed off at the government.

Digital Zombies are pissed off at the corporations.

Digital Zombies are pissed off at other people.

But a Digital Zombie will never be pissed off at himself. The idle lifestyle will make a life of low wage and/or low adventure. Everyone will be blamed except himself. The more the Digital Zombie stays online, the smarter he thinks he is becoming… even if he is just browsing gaming message forums and Twitter all day.