The awakening truth

MANILA, Philippines - Isn’t it peculiar how most people use the Internet to socialize instead of going out and meeting people personally? Our lives have become so dependent on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites that a day without status updates and tweets would be unbearable. Why does it bother us when none of our friends like or comment on our recent status update? Does our worth as people now depend on the number of followers we have online?

I used to be so addicted to Facebook that I preferred to stay home and update my status each and every minute. I even hated reading books because, back then, I thought that reading was the most boring thing a teenager can do, until I chanced upon the book Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky. At first I thought it was just a typical teenage love story but I was wrong. Katie Kacvinsky awakened my mind and changed my views toward technology. She made me realize that sometimes we need to unplug our lives from our precious gadgets and look at life with brand new eyes.

Awaken is a fiction novel about Madeline and Justin, who live in a world completely controlled by technology. It’s about what our world would or could be like in 2060. In their world, technology has become more powerful; people use 3D screens to communicate and socialize instead of going out; kids get education through computers; books are no longer made of paper, but are simply can be downloaded. Instead of reading, all you have to do is to sit and listen to the gadget. Instead of traveling, people are virtually transported to their favorite destinations through a digital screen that changes their surroundings. And gadgets called “mind readers” project a person’s thoughts on a screen so people don’t even have to speak to send a message. All these things described in Kacvinsky’s book can happen sooner or later.

Justin is one of the main characters in the book and almost everything he said made a huge impact in my life. Justin and Madeline live different lives. Madeline simply embraces what the technology has to offer, especially since her dad is the founder of DS (Digital School); Justin wants to live a life without gadgets because he believes that people should spend time with each other face to face, without the help of digital gadgets. He thinks that going out and meeting people is still better than befriending someone online. His character opened my eyes and taught me a lot of things. I read the book through the eyes of Madeline, like I was the one Justin was talking to, the one he’s changing.

“Sitting at home all day in front of an electric device mistaking yourself into thinking you’re living and experiencing. You think those are really friends you’re making?” said Justin. We think that all our online friends are real friends, but guess what, not all of them are. Some are just acquaintances we barely recognize when we bump into each other along the streets We all want to be cool. To be in on what’s new, what everyone is talking about. And sometimes we want to be talked about. We forget that having tons of friends online doesn’t matter, that they don’t all count as real friends.

There are also those people who are not only addicted to Facebook but also to their cell phones. Everywhere they go, their phones are always in their hands. Their fingers are glued to the keypad and their eyes to the screen –– all the time. Yes, I do have my own Facebook account but I don’t open it every day just to check my notifications. I’ve learned that I don’t need to tell everyone where I am or where I’ve been, what I’m doing, what I did or what I’m about to do, who I’m with and what I’m eating or what I just ate. I have come to realize that my Facebook profile doesn’t define who I am.

I know these social networking sites have advantages too. They help us reconnect and communicate with our friends and relatives abroad. We can also help one another in times of tragedy and natural calamities through Twitter and Facebook, just like when we faced with floods and storms. Still, too much of everything is wrong. Life without computers and cellphones isn’t boring -– we have lived that way before. So what’s wrong with unplugging for a week, a month or even a year? What is stopping you? I have done this for six months and I’m proud to say, I survived.

THIS WEEK’S WINNER

Angelica S. Flores is an 18-year-old AB-Psychology student at the University of Perpetual Help. She loves to read and write her own short stories. She also maintains a blog and hopes to write a novel some day.