Dear friends, we are old. But we are also special. We from the 80s are the first and only generation to have lived in the past and in the future. We know how the world was before the internet and smartphones. And we know how cool all these innovations really are. Well, I stand corrected: maybe some of us know how cool living in the future is.
I remember having to spend hours in the bank to pay some bills. We would have no idea what would happen in the world if we hadn't been watching the news at 8 pm. I remember losing an episode of X-Files and having no way to watch it again. Heck, I remember WATCHING an episode of X-Files and having absolutely no one to discuss how cool the episode was. Before the internet, being "different" - even if by different I'm talking about being nerd - meant that we were lonely.
But then, things changed.
I was able to connect with the world. I could spend hours discussing new episodes of my favorite series, comics, and cartoons. Some of my best friends didn't even live in my city. The first girl that I talked to without feeling anxious wasn't from my country. The first time I heard from someone that I wasn't a nuisance was from people on the internet. I felt welcomed in a place that didn't exist in the "real" world.
It's important to note, as I'm writing to old friends and family, that... It's not your fault that I felt alone, even when I was surrounded by people. Believe me, even today, it's hard for some teenagers to feel that they are part of society. You all did what you could with the pieces you received.
And it gets crazier. I perfectly remember the feeling that I had when I was able to pay my first bill by just accessing a website and typing a code. I screamed "OH MY GAWD, THE FUTURE IS NOW 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯" the first time I pointed a cellphone camera to a barcode, the bank app recognized it. It was mind-blowing to keep a device in my pocket and with that device talk to anyone, anywhere. Before the iPhone, my motto was "I just need a cellphone that makes calls and receive texts, anything else is useless" - and, just five years later, I was talking to different people in different apps, sharing photos of where I was, what I was doing, and how I felt by doing that. Small talk, cheap talk, dirty talk, you name it, technology made it simple and easy.
A friend of mine summarized it in an interview around 2010: The reporter asked how many hours he spent on the internet, and my friend answered, "lady, I have a smartphone. If I'm awake, I'm on the internet".
It was the best of times. And then, something crazy happened.
I won't discuss politics here. Well, at least on this post. But around 2015, I was starting to notice some weird trends: People stopped caring about real connections and valued more opinions and ideologies. At first, the internet was about connecting with shared interests. Over time, it became more about proving a point, being right, or standing with a group.
I mean, how can I care about your "Happy Birthday" message on Facebook if Facebook itself reminds you that it's my birthday and you have to send me congrats? Does your message have any value? And how can I truly discuss with you if the facts don't matter, what matters is that someone with millions of followers said something that you think is ok?
The same technology that made me a citizen of the world without even leaving my country tore society into groups. It was easy to connect, and so it was easy to hate for no reason at all. It was incredibly easy to RSVP to a dinner or a party, but, well, there's ANOTHER party on the same day and hour, and I don't want to miss that, and I also don't want to make you sad by saying that I won't go. So good luck explaining to the restaurant how a reserved table of 20 had 4 people 👍
And it doesn't stop here: around 2017, I went into the rabbit hole of deep fakes and how the technology was being used to create fake people. We didn't have AI yet - or at least, not so powerful as we have today - but there was a lot of academic discussion around how it could mean bad news. Some friends thought that all that was cool. Then I asked, "How would you feel if you discovered that someone got your photos and your voice and created a fake intimate video of you? Or even worse, created a sex doll with your look and feel and that reacted with your voice? There's no law to this". No one knew how to answer that. Some even argued that it was impossible.
Incredibly enough, almost 10 years later, creating a fake someone is so easy that it feels criminal. And in most of the civilized world, there are no specific laws around it. I can do anything, create anything, emulate even how someone writes and talks, and that's... OK?
I may be repeating myself, but it's crazy to think, as I write this, that the same tech that made me feel part of something now makes me feel alone and in danger.
We don't know if we are talking to a real person. We don't know if we are reading something created by a human. We don't know if a video is real or not. Even worse, it's public and notorious that AI can create out of the blue laws, citations, people, or events that didn't happen at all, just to please the user.
It's a bad episode of X-Files, but in real time. No one has time to discuss these problems because tech bomb us with content tailored to make us feel outraged every. single. minute.
Being online 24 hours a day isn't cool anymore; it's dangerous.
So, as the great philosopher John Oliver always says: "What do we do about this?" Do we throw our phones into the ocean and start sending letters like it’s the 1800s? Tempting, but that would make sexting a little inconvenient.
Tech is something that happens TO us, and WE are the ones who choose how to use it; we just need to... reclaim it. The internet made us feel connected once, and it still can. What if we stopped doomscrolling for a second and actually used tech to strengthen friendships instead of just reacting to whatever nonsense algorithm decides should make us angry today? In 2020, I deleted most of my social accounts, and honestly, I feel fine. A little overweight, but psychologically? Better than ever.
In the 80's the world acted together trying to fix the ozone layer. Society listened to scientits and forced politicians to do something. Media reported what was happening and the dangers of it. Laws where passed and forced upont the industry. Maybe it's time we have the actual tech be "ozonelayered".
Maybe we start small. I'm starting to discuss with some people how to actively act to solve this, be it advocating for better tech regulations or offering free digital literacy for underprivileged people. I also deleted my social media presence on platforms that I don't feel align with my beliefs.
Maybe we don’t need to be online 24/7, but instead, use tech to truly connect with someone — like we did in the early days of the internet, when finding a new friend across the world felt like magic.
I still believe in that "OH MY GAWD, WE ARE LIVING IN THE FUTURE 🤩" feeling. I believe in humanity and in the strength that we have to push things in a better way. The future is still ours to shape, assuming that we can stop asking ChatGPT how to shape our future.
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