After watching a few short videos on the effects of technology on humankind and finding some sources of my own, I have been forced to rethink my relationship with technology and reflect on just how unhealthy it was for me growing up. Over time, I have learned that stepping away even the tiniest bit from certain aspects of technology can make a world of a difference.
The mid-1960s attraction, FUTURAMA, predicted many elements of our current world correctly. It was off on a few things, such as a tropical highway and unlimited underwater resources. Still, we did have moon exploration, a lunar rover, and now have a series of electronic-based cars from multiple companies.
Moby's remix of "Mad World" depicts a dark, nightmarish world held prisoner to technology. Sadly, the contents of the music video are not a far cry from our current reality. The music video features animations such as multiple couples glued to their devices at a restaurant not saying a word to each other, and a single-file line of people walking towards and falling into an open sewer with their heads down, mesmerized by their cell phones.
Both of these videos showcase that technology has been placed at the forefront of society. The sheer amount of attention that we give new technology without hesitation already seems dangerous enough.
My relationship with technology has improved significantly over the years, when compared to the previous inescapable bond between my younger self and social media; specifically, diet culture.
I never thought about how my body looked, or planned out what I ate, or worried about my size until it seemed like everybody else was doing it. To me, that is the source of the issue. When you are young, you are too easily influenced. You care so much about what everyone else is doing after seeing it posted all over social media, and so you decide to do it too. You think it will be good for you.
As I entered my teenage years, I found myself searching up things like "South Beach Diet" on Google, watching YouTube videos with complex workouts claiming to erase fat in a matter of days, and following models or shredded, super-fit celebrities on social media, thinking that it would inspire me and motivate me enough to get into the gym and start dieting and restricting myself to look just like them.
I tried to research what my body type was, convincing myself that I was disproportionate, and avoiding looking in mirrors. I constantly calculated my BMI (body mass index) to see if I was overweight. When an online BMI calculator told me that I was at an average weight, I took it as the end of the world.
Younger me did not want to be average. She wanted to be perfect and skinny and fit into a size 00. She wanted to have an impossible combination of features, and yearned to look like anyone else but herself. If someone were to take all of the perfect physical characteristics that I imagined in my head and make a real person out of it, the most accurate result I can think of now is if Pablo Picasso tried to build a Barbie doll.
For decades, society had not batted an eye when young women tried to shrink themselves down in the most unhealthy ways. Even today, the media greatly encourages weight loss and advertises it like crazy.
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| Oprah in an advertisement for Weight Watchers |
Flip through channels on your television, and you are bound to see a commercial from Weight Watchers, Noom, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, SlimFast, or Atkins. Most of the time, celebrities are endorsing these companies because, sadly, people are more likely to buy something if a famous person tells them to. Do you see the connection? No matter how old you are, you are still so easily influenced by other people.
In a world where social media holds such great presence; filters, photoshop and all, how are we supposed to know what is real? How are we supposed to know what will be good or bad for us if we just continue to blindly copy other people's behaviors?
Today, I am in a much better place with my appearance. I have learned that food is fuel, carbs are not bad for you, exercise should not be a punishment, and following fad diets is going to do all harm and no good.
I was able to start healing my toxic relationship with technology, but there are still hundreds of people out there who are stuck, hiding in the damaging shadow that diet culture casts. We as a society need to find a way to fix this. The problems that can arise from diet culture on social media cannot solve themselves.
