Brittany Wilson
By Brittany Wilson (Whetstone Staff Writer)
I love people watching. It’s instinct—watching, listening, being aware—it’s what writers do.
That is one of the many reasons I love to travel. Airports are full of all kinds of people, headed to all kinds of places, for all kinds of reasons. Each is a character within his own story and, even if only for a brief moment, a character in mine.
But last week, as I sat at the airport waiting to board my flight to Nashville, every character was two-dimensional. Flat. Distant. Every character, with the exception of only a few, had their eyes pasted to a screen, totally absorbed in text messages, social media outlets, games, movies, and apps.
There was very little communication in the terminal; most chose to talk to the people inside their phones rather than the people sitting beside them. Children sat apathetically, uninterested in the bustling excitement around them— iPads in hand, they were too absorbed in movies and games to even notice. I never saw anyone pull out a book or a newspaper, but then again, I guess they’d never need to with so much technology literally at their fingertips.
In Nashville, I attended a journalism conference, similar to those I’d been to before. But rather than learning reporting techniques, writing styles or new stylistic suggestions for newspaper formats, this conference focused entirely on the importance of technology within the field.
The best time of day to tweet a story. Where to post certain stories to get the most views online. New web designs and apps to make stories more appealing and accessible. How to con people into making something trend.
Basically promoting the use of anything bright and shiny enough to capture a person’s attention, even if only for a minute.
“And besides, no one reads printed newspapers anymore.â€
The easiest demographic to target? Millennials. Students. Us.
It was like sitting in science class. These speakers had studied trends and numbers so extensively that they could accurately predict specific social media responses, especially to advertising.
We were supposed to take this information and use it to our advantage in promoting the newspaper. But I didn’t find these statistics and methods helpful at all. Honestly, it was pretty disturbing.
More than anything though, I was offended— knowing that I had been so obliviously falling victim to their schemes. So I took out my phone, scribbled devil horns and a fiery pitchfork on to a picture of one of the speakers, and added it to my Snapchat story.
Revenge, which did absolutely nothing except prove that I am just as guilty as anyone else.
But think of all the things we are missing out on because we are so captivated by technology. In reality, most apps are pretty useless. But for some reason they become a priority—a very time-consuming one at that.
It would be devastating if this technological fixation led to the extinction of printed resources, books and newspapers. According to the speakers at the conference, this is our fate. This is where things are headed, and to be successful you can’t fight it, but rather play it to your advantage. But I say we have the power to choose our own doom.
I don’t want to be the reason why people no longer walk to the end of the driveway to pick up the paper and skim the news over a bowl of cereal. I don’t want to be the reason why yellowed pages are replaced by newsfeeds and computers screens outnumber books in the library.
I don’t want to be just another number in some arrogant CEO’s trend stats.
It’s hard to be an individual when you’re considered just one of seven billion.
Waiting for my flight back home, swarms of zombies trudged through the airport, but this time I wasn’t interested in watching. So I plugged in my iPad and watched Netflix instead.
