To be clear, The Black Mirror SG campaign isn’t suggesting a return to the Stone Age or forgoing social media entirely.
“Being able to spend time offline is actually a luxury, especially in Singapore, where the culture expects you to be contacted 24/7. (But) there needs to be this equilibrium,” added Chiang Yang.
“Unfortunately, you have to be online because our services are online, news outlets are transitioning online. To live a life completely off the grid or private is difficult, (especially if) you’re doing it by yourself.”
But neither do I believe the main purpose of disconnecting is to connect with other people. It is, more broadly, about doing the hard work of actual thought.
For everything smartphones and social media have given, they have taken as much, perhaps more. The way I see it, a smartphone or social media addiction is an addiction to utmost convenience.
Having access to the world’s biggest library within milliseconds offers a panacea for the necessary labour of questioning our biases and feelings; deciding our own beliefs and values; building relationships with people, not personas – and, quite simply, being human.
It’s easier to trawl TikTok or YouTube whenever I need a perspective on a cultural trend, turn to a chronically online heuristic to describe a complex world issue, or rely on ChatGPT to add nuance to my articles. And believe me, I am always tempted to abandon good old-fashioned thinking.
Just like it would’ve been easier to scroll through social media whenever there was a lull in conversation during the evening, instead of wrack my brain for something to say or learn to sit in completely normal silence.
But in the era of excessive ease, the difficulty of a process is often why I trust it. The effort is the point.
