By Ryan Fortune
Sometimes you just have to look around and ask: What the hell are we doing? We’re surrounded by crises that grow louder by the day, yet we go on scrolling, swiping, consuming, and tuning out. Just look at what's happening: hurricanes in the U.S. and Philippines are becoming deadlier, half of Portugal was engulfed in flames a couple of months ago, and new mines are gouging the earth for minerals to power our smartphones and electric cars. At the same time, we live in a world where nearly all our conversations have moved online, filtered into the echo chambers of social media — platforms that aren’t “social” at all but instead foster isolation, hyper-individualism and mindless consumption.
Let's face it: these platforms that we’re glued to are not 'social' at all. Preying on our boredom, our insecurities and our need to belong, they were designed to keep us isolated and distracted so that we are constantly on the lookout for the next shiny new thing to buy in hopes that it will fill up the gaping hole in our soul that just keeps getting bigger. And what’s even more troubling is that these platforms and devices - which have become 90% of our reality - are powered by lithium and coltan, mined in some of the world’s poorest countries, hauled out of the ground by abused and starving children. Deep down, we’re too afraid to confront the tragic reality of what’s happening outside our screens.
And it gets stranger. Now we live in a world where we don’t just rely on our devices for entertainment and connection; we’ve started outsourcing our thinking to them. Every day, AI and machines are taking on jobs and tasks we used to perform ourselves. Algorithms curate what we see, robots do our work, and soon, AI might even start making our most complex decisions for us. What happens when we no longer have to think or work? Will we become merely passive consumers, fed an endless stream of content, products, and ideas that serve only the powerful few?
There was a time when life was hard, but it was real. People grew their food, built their homes, and made their own decisions. We are rapidly replacing that existence with one where our choices are manipulated, our values commodified, and our future automated. It's not just technology and consumerism that have robbed us of our humanity; the very institutions we once looked to for meaning and purpose — religion, education, and media — have also largely become tools of control, distraction and mass confusion. Organised religion, often steeped in power struggles, has little to offer in a world crying out for real connection and compassion. The news media no longer informs us; it keeps us in a constant loop of outrage, nihilism and passivity. Political and celebrity scandals, tragic news events in distant places that make us feel informed but leave us powerless to enact change. And then there’s the marketplace — the shopping malls and online stores that have morphed into temples of consumerism, urging us to buy more, want more, and stay numb.
Is this life of endless consumption, isolation and control really the life we want for ourselves? Does owning things we don’t need and waiting for an AI-driven “solution” to our problems bring us satisfaction? Do we feel more at peace? More connected? More alive? Maybe it’s time we reimagine our lives completely. Instead of counting on the next tech breakthrough or political promise to fix everything, perhaps we should take a step back and start asking some real tough questions about the world we're building and that we will leave behind for the next generation once we die. What would it look like to disengage from the endless flood of useless information, gadgets, junk food and beauty products? To create our own communities, ones based on purpose, peace, and connection to nature?
Imagine stepping off the hamster wheel of modern city life, heading off to the countryside to build our own homes in off-grid ecovillages, grow our own food, and raise our kids free from the clutches of organised religion, mass media, and the compulsive consumerism that’s killing us. Imagine a life of meditation, connection, and true freedom — a life where we don’t just exist but consciously choose to live in harmony with each other and the earth.
As the hippies told us all the way back in the 60s: the world doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to be slaves to the algorithms, to the endless scroll, or to a system that treats us as cogs in a machine. We can choose to wake up, step off, and build a life that’s real. Perhaps it's not too late for the vast majority of us to end up becoming good ancestors.
Fortune is a techno-realist who helps businesses adapt to new digital innovations. He can be contacted at https://topmate.io/ ryan_fortune
Saturday Star