I’m Stuck In The Future Essay Example

I write to you from the year 2019. I miss the simplicity of my former life. Nowadays everyone spends too much time on their phones (devices used to communicate with each other). “Social Media,” a platform for people to share their ideas with the rest of the world, broadcasts everything now. Most of social media is just a rigamarole anyway. I find it difficult to keep to myself, rather every move I make I feel someone watches. As I stated in my journal, “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating” (128), and I never truly feel isolated anymore. I treasure my alone time, and in 2019 I cannot eke out just one minute where I feel unaccompanied. I try not to post on it, but I find it almost impossible to not see what others post. Social media addicts the mind and I find it difficult to stop scrolling. When others post, I don’t feel alone. Due to this doleful truth, I find it difficult to feel “wholesome” as I mentioned. 

In addition to never letting me find time companionless, social media often narrates copious amounts of false information. I value the truth more than anything, stating in my journal that “rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” (309), a feat often not achieved in 2019. Man seems to treasure but “money” and “fame”. Truth falls out of everyday life, with companies and people lying when they feel it will improve their chances of achieving fame or money due to corporate avarice. For example, a big social media company, “Facebook,” stole people’s private data and sold it illegally. The company then lied about it, but they got away with this fib because they settled out of court for 5 billion dollars. Despite this sad truth, most people still use this site due to its addicting nature. I’ve grown to distrust much of what I read in the news. I turned on the news the other day, and the local channel was on. I had recently attended a peaceful protest over an innocent man’s death (a man named George Floyd). Despite my firsthand knowledge of the truth (that it was peaceful), the media showed clips of violence and claimed it a “riot.” It was extremely disheartening to see such an ineffable sight such as our first amendment rights twisted into what seemed violent based on what I viewed on the news. “Social Media” thinks only about pecuniary matters. Big social media such as the news generates money from views, and man gravitates towards watching violence rather than beauty. 

Even the trustworthy news (which rarely appears) that I do find comes unwelcome. I long to learn on my own, writing, “we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable” (297), articulating my enjoyment in doing my own research. Every question I search for already has an answer, and I find it difficult to learn on my own anymore. Nothing remains “mysterious'' or “unexplorable” for me with everything already explored and answered on google (a social media website with many answers to the most critical questions). The unanswered questions have become answered, and I struggle to find my piece in the puzzle. Back in 1845, measuring the depth of the pellucid Walden pond occupied my time. Now, I could simply search for the depth on google and find an answer in an instant. What remains my purpose with all already known? It would seem simple to just not search for the answer, but I find it so addictive to know the truth for certain. When I make a sedulous discovery of something for myself, I feel complete. Learning on my own benefits me by expanding my knowledge and my brain power. With all already discovered and online, my knowledge does not expand in the same way. I find my happiness enervates when I’m told an answer, rather than learning for myself. Back in your time I asserted that “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach” (28), but now I fear it impossible to live “deliberately” in my present with all of this social media. I wish to return, for who else will assiduously whack my weeds? And what use is a god without his tool? Nature looks different now. The slight zephyr out here remains, however. The ant war finally came to a close (the redcoats never stood a chance). I still try to listen to the squirrel, rabbit, and fox, but they seem harder to find with all of the current deforestation. I ventured back to the pond a fortnight ago. I actually caught a pickerel (I dare you to find a single god with more might than I). Everyone now agrees with me that the pond sits no more than 100 feet deep, but most never worked for that answer. Man just looks up the depth, and now I can’t help but feel irritated that man will never understand the happiness in finding a truth through hard work. He also now finds no joy in portentous nature. Instead, man spends his time on social media. In my journal, I wrote that “we must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn” (85), and in 2019 I see no person that functions without these mechanical aids. “Mechanical aids,” such as social media, occupy much of man’s time. Instead of playing a simple board game, my counterparts browse social media, not even looking for a specific cause, but as a cure for boredom. When I was bored, I would peer out into nature and write. Now, society wastes their minds away scrolling through apps such as “Instagram'' and “Twitter.” In the final chapter of my journal I talk about the untapped potential of humanity. 

What I see now is nowhere near what I envisioned. I always lived so simplisticly. I spent little money, built my own shelter, and spent my time discovering and admiring nature. I struggle to find anyone who lives the way I do now. The entire country lives absorbed by mass consumption. I don’t see anybody admiring nature, instead most just ignore it and go on with their days. I fear man does not know what it misses out on. All in all, I believe that social media is but a thorn in the side of humankind. We are losing touch with the simplicities of life, and I fear that nature now takes a back seat to “entertainment” such as social media. I was not built for the year 2019, and I wish to return back to my normal time where I may enjoy simple activities such as writing and admiring nature.