Too much loneliness in this city of vice,
Take me back to another, easier time.
Where everyone around me isn’t consumed by a device,
And face-to-face conversations aren’t a crime.
Meant to bring people together,
It truly only breaks us apart.
People living in a simulated reality,
Trying to digitally document it all before they depart.
Is that how you want to be remembered?
From statuses, online albums and party pictures?
A world started by oral and written histories,
Now bogged down by filtered discrepancies.
Tainted pictures used to keep us mysteries,
While the Internet documents your life’s miniseries.
Information just a quick click away,
True research a thing of the past.
Sitting around a computer wasting our days,
Thinking a picture on your phone will make these memories last.
Can’t we just go back to a simpler time?
When I remembered your birthday and you knew mine?
Internet envy leading to private depression,
Embellishment without discretion
I only want a societal repossession,
Just for everyone to step back and question…
This isn’t a call for a rebellion or a revolution,
But was technology really supposed to be part of our evolution?
Jordan Valentine, USA
The Social Poet 