Why I Hate This Video

These past days a new video went viral, “a spoken word film for an online generation”. The creator argues that by switching on our devices we shut the doors, that we have the illusion of a social life while we become isolated slaves of technology.

Although the video is rapidly spreading through my networks with many positive comments, I must confess I found it annoying.

Firstly, I cannot bypass the irony (and fact) that this video - message had to be created using technology and has spread through social media.

Secondly, why do we confuse a tool with a hundred-plus years old social phenomenon: alienation.

Since the video focused on human connection, can we count in how many ways technology has provided the means to make connecting with one another easier? How many people have you met thanks to social media? How many opportunities has it created for people with disabilities?

Even for those romantic souls, how much has it facilitated finding the one?

How much knowledge and information is available, which was unavailable before? How many community projects and actions are organized through it? How has your own business and career benefited from it?

How we are using something, anything, is our responsibility. And if we need to find ways to avoid eye contact we are going to find them. We are living in urban spaces that favorite alienation and that is definitely not technology's fault.

We would all like to live in greater harmony and connection. Demonizing a tool will not provide the way for that.

Stanley Kubrick. Life and Love on the New York City Subway. 1946. Museum of the City of New York.