I feel a strong sense of nostalgia for what the world was like before everything became instant through technology.
I think, to some extent, people don’t really know who they are anymore. Along with that, there’s more low self esteem, anxiety, attention problems, and even depression. Part of it comes from being afraid to do something fun or even a little embarrassing, because someone might see it, record it, or take a picture. That fear changes how people act.
Parties aren’t the same. People don’t really dance anymore. Family gatherings turn into everyone sitting at the table on their phones. You go to a concert and instead of watching it, people are watching their screens, recording something they will probably never watch again. If you don’t reply to a message within a few minutes, people get annoyed. They call you over and over.
You go to the movies and it’s the same thing. People are on their phones, talking, or just being rude. And the movies themselves feel different too. You don’t recognize the actors, their expressions feel flat, and even if the image quality is better, something is missing. It often feels like everything is trying so hard not to offend anyone, with this kind of forced positivity, adding things just because it looks good for diversity, even when it doesn’t fit the context. There are constant remakes and very few original ideas. At some point, trying so hard to be inclusive starts to feel forced and loses its meaning.
It also feels like people have forgotten how to be curious or how to be bored. No one can focus for long. I miss the idea of things not being immediate, of having some sense of manners and privacy.
I’m almost 30, and my childhood was different. I used to go outside and play with other kids in my neighborhood, spend a bit of time on the computer, and that was it. Everything wasn’t instant. I remember seeing teenagers going out and doing whatever they wanted without worrying about being recorded. They weren’t afraid, they didn’t hold back as much, they expressed themselves more freely.
In a way, it feels like the world lost its color and became black and white. Constant exposure leads to self censorship, and people start depending too much on validation. That’s part of why low self esteem feels so common now.
And it worries me that this could get worse. Or that people might eventually get overwhelmed and try to pull back from technology altogether.
If you are never alone with yourself, it becomes very hard to know who you really are.