When I set out to write this blog post, I had this grand idea of comparing the relationships Amy Poehler has with my own. I was going to talk about how she is communicating with her friends with technology without necessarily relying on it, and I was going to critique my own methods of communication with my friends and family.
However, I recently downloaded TikTok, and I think most of us know what happens when you visit TikTok.
(Spoiler for those of you without TikTok: you have good intentions of looking at one video, but you tend to lose track of time, and by that I mean you find yourself watching videos of cats hitting the “woah” two hours after you started.)
In summary, I’ve decided not to pursue my original topic. Instead, I will be ranting about how technology has caused me to become a procrastinator, much like Poehler discussed in her book Yes, Please.
You see, before I had an iPhone or a tablet, I was able to get my work done without a hitch, and still have time to watch The Incredibles yet again. Now, I can waste hours on Youtube and by the time I’m aware of myself and the time, I’ve already watched “Top 10 Saturday Night Live Members Who Always Break Character” (shoutout to WatchMojo) and had time to start writing in the comments section (not that I have, although really? Jimmy Fallon is number one? I’ve got to support my main man, Bill Hader!
But I digress.)
Amy Poehler and I both have a relationship with modern technology that’s almost toxic in a way. Not just when it comes to body image or emotions, but also bringing down our work ethics. Her first item of proof from the chapter “The Robots Will Kill Us All: A Conclusion” is literally “My phone does not want me to finish this book or do any work in general” (317). It seems as if writing this book was just as difficult for her as it is for some students to write five-hundred words (cough cough me). If you go back and read everything under that heading, that happens every time I take a break from doing homework or studying. It starts with searching for something useful, like a synonym for the word “scatter” (like “shower”); it turns into remembering you wanted a new shower curtain, so you go to Amazon and look at artsy shower curtains; then you remember that you liked the shower curtain back home that your brother got while you were gone; for some reason, you realize you talked with him in almost three weeks and decide to give him a call; he proceeds to not answer, so you panic and think somethings wrong, so you call you’re mom thinking she might know what’s wrong; that’s when she answers and asks “Elana, why are you calling me at 11:40 at night?”
And that’s when you realize you screwed up. It’s been four hours since you touched your homework. Thanks, Apple.
I’ve come to realize just how obsessed I am about what I can see on my phone. The phone itself is only important because of everything stored on it. All of my photos, contacts, memories-everything is on this device that has a screen the height of my face. I know that there was a time when I wasn’t obsessed with stuff on a small screen. I know that there was a time when I was obsessed instead with The Incredibles, Batman (1966) and Toy Story 2. Poehler used to be obsessed with movies on the big screen, like The Omen, Caddyshack, and The Jerk (315-316). All of a sudden, we both turned our attentions to smaller screens with even more power.
That makes me wonder about my obsession. Why did it start? I didn’t just watch fictional movies-I read a lot of fiction books. I would be transported to other worlds and my imagination would run wild. Am I transported to the worlds of other people, and so transfixed with the creations of others that can’t bring myself to leave? Am I anxious about my own reality, so I use the work of others to distract myself? Do I need to focus on why I want to escape my reality? How much of this can I actually control?
Do I even want to stop?
