Addictions: Hours into the Night

There are millions of citizens of first and second world countries that spend hours upon hours indoors, hooked up to a monitor, up for all hours of the night. Is this a new revolution in entertainment, or a detriment to natural human life? I’ve been asking myself this question for months now, as I’m one of the millions under the same spell.

We can share loads of media over this internet. I mean, just look at social sites. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, even google+ (*tch*). Thousands upon thousands of people are constantly posting information about their lives, about what’s going on around them, what interests them and what they hate. There’s so much interaction now, how could this be a bad thing?! The world is so much smaller, and ideas spread so much more quickly! We simply can’t be losing anything.

Welp, that’s just it.

What with the trend in the necessity for instant gratification that started after the World Wars (buying things on credit), we’ve been losing sight of what we actually have as opposed to what we own. Sure, you might have a huge 80-inch TV in 1080p, but what does that do for you other than expose you to mre media that promotes bigger, better TVs, and a bigger, better life?

Exactly. The material possessions we have are absolutely meaningless except when considered in their own context. We waste so much time just sitting and doing nothing – what with games, television, and the endless stream of content on the internet, that we hardly even exist in the real world anymore. Few people are outside on a beautiful day in the park, and some will even look at you weird if you just lay down by a creek and take a nap if you aren’t in a campsite. I mean, what is the world coming to, that we can’t live our lives outside of our own homes, detached from the things other people made?

I myself am attached to my instruments. I know I truly own them (or I will, once I pay my parents back). I play them every day and produce something the world has never experienced before – sound that is uniquely my style, uniquely me. Not one other person can take that away from me – my instruments are my own, and my voice will always be with me, even if I have no tuba, piano, trombone, or drums.