Louis CK talks about how technology ruins society

In all the thousands of words expended this year on Twitter abuse and Ask.fm bullying – including the ones I contributed – no one nailed the problem as effectively as C.K does in the clip above. He says:

 I think these things are toxic, especially for kids … they don’t look at people when they talk to them and they don’t build empathy. You know, kids are mean, and it’s ‘cause they’re trying it out. They look at a kid and they go, “you’re fat”, and then they see the kid’s face scrunch up and they go, “oh that doesn’t feel good to make a person do that.” But they got to start with doing the mean thing. But when they write “you’re fat,” then they just go, “mmm, that was fun, I like that.”

Unlike Franzen who outright dismisses the role of Twitter and other social media in building friendships and communities, CK offers a nuanced critique:

 You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That’s why the phone are taking away…the ability to just sit there. That’s being a person. Because underneath everything in your life there is that thing. that empty – forever empty. That knowledge that it’s all for nothing and that you’re alone. It’s down there.

…sometimes when things clear away, you’re not watching anything, you’re in your car and you start going, “oh no, here it comes. That I’m alone.” It starts to visit on you. Just this sadness. Life is tremendously sad, just by being in it…

 …that’s why we text and drive. I look around, pretty much 100% of the people driving are texting. And they’re killing, everybody’s murdering each other with their cars. But people are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don’t want to be alone for a second because it’s hard.

 I think smartphones can be incredible tools but we have come to a sad point where we are slaves to them. Tied to them and fed little moments of delight to kick out a dopamine hit in our heads. Smartphones and tablets have ruined concerts. Instead of people engaged in the moment, bands stare out at a sea of glowing rectangles. They have also ruined the pub quiz, people reliant on Google over their own trivia knowledge.

Talk to any cabbie and you’ll discover what zombies many Britons have become. Rather than talking to the driver they stare down at their phones, speaking to their disembodied friends in the cloud, the same fascinating celestial choir that distracts them from dinner conversations with friends and family who have bothered to be there in person. I love technology but Louis CK is right. Smartphones have become a blight.

Analysis

I think this blog is a very good insight to how society is being affected through the use of technology. It shows the truth about how we do ruin our society by using our phones and the internet all the time. It shows that people cannot live without having their phones on them because they feel insecure or bored without it. I think this blog should show people how society will change the way we live. If we keep loving our phones so much then no one will learn how to socialise properly so we will end up lonely and I think that is what Louis intended to show is that by our constant use in technology we are damaging society. He claims that technology ruins peoples intelligence aswell “people reliant on google over their own trivia knowledge” he makes it out that people will never be smart again due to their use of technology. I think this blog is a bit of an eye opener to people that do use technology too much, it is bad for them to use it too much and they should really cut down or even stop.