I Just Don't Get It
A short piece on man's failure to use our devices as tools

I don't get it.

We have access to arguably the most useful tool that exists outside the human body, yet we spend all day using it for boring, brain-rotting content.

We have the totality of human understanding at our literal fingertips, yet we spend our days playing Candy Crush.

We have the ability to use our phones and other devices to learn about our world, have the ability to create new systems of understanding, have the literal technological capability of solving nearly all injustices that have plagued civilization since its inception, and yet we spend it doom scrolling.

We have access to guides and spiritual resources to better our very souls and find like-minded people to connect with, yet we would rather watch internet celebrity gossip and apology videos, or yell at each other in echo chambers.

We have the ability to once again return to a nomadic way of life, having everything our ancestors once considered to be sacred knowledge and important to survival (without having to even speak to an elder to learn from their wisdom); the ability to find everything we need for our survival, yet we fall in line with capitalist and consumerist propaganda to buy constantly, and to identify with that corporation's self-imposed brand.

Yet our gravest sin of all is our ability to self-deceptively justify to ourselves that it's OK to indulge in just a little vice we are aware of because the rest of the time we're putting our time to good use.

We stay blind to the countless other ways our time on this planet is being wasted by what underlies all the problems above; our inability to think outside of short-term gratification.