technology poems ✦
a few poems to close out the Year!
Two emails back to back in one week. A NYE offering from me to you. I wanted to publish this before New Year’s and things got busy. These are 4 poems on technology and the Internet of things. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to tech, Ai, social media, time spent online, and da crazzzzzzzziness of everything!! So I wrote some somethings about my feelings.
I’m also taking an Instagram break. I have not done a consecutive one in a few years now but I’m on like Day 5 and can I just say, days feel weird without checking Instagram. I hate the feeling of being controlled and although I "think” I can be tactile and strategic with how I use social media, Instagram is my Achilles heel.
I love my feed and seeing what my friends are doing and thinking, and memes, my precious memes LOL. My feed is 85% meme content and I also love creating little things on my phone and posting them to giggle about later or connect but then I find myself bombarded with a couple hundred other things I would’ve done better not giving attention to. My goal is to be off two weeks but I’ll probably pop back in to the digital realm for New Years, we’ll see.
Two quick observations of my 5 day detox (I’ll probably document the two weeks and publish a post on that)
Filling in gaps of time with Instagram.
I’ve already been aware this is how I use the app, there’s a feature in Apple’s settings that let’s you know how often you click on apps and let me just say Instagram’s in the lead.
Since I moved back to the U.S. I changed the way I used social media and my feed is primarily, people I know, educational content/things I’m learning, the news, social media personalities I like, fashion, music, writers, and lots of meme content.
What I haven’t mastered yet, which is primarily the tech game anyways and they’ve got me, is that I find myself watching one story or reel and then it’s 10. I’ve gotten more self-aware of this but it still happens because, hey, what funny thing lies under this funny thing I just watched—could get funnier!
Thinking of my phone differently
The first two days I’d instinctively reach to search for Instagram during breakfast and then was like, ‘oh’. So, instead I’ve been spending more time on other apps on my phone. My favorite ones right now have been Time Passages (an app to learn about Astrology), PI.FYI (aka Perfectly Imperfect, an app that I love that fosters authenticity, decenters the idea of gatekeeping things, and encourages sharing and recommending the most random and mundane things) and good ‘ole reliable Pinterest.
I wanna set my phone up in a way where it’s like a swiss army knife for me so I’ve gotta go through this period to make my way there.
That’s it LOL, kinda silly. This will be my last post until the New Year.
Happy New Years!!!
001.
on my knees
a child
at the foot of my bed
hands clasped
knees caressing carpet
another night
hoping for a sound
surrounded by silence
on my feet
a bit older now
and never too far
from a blue-light-lit screen
been feeling sub-human
think i’m slowly turning into a machine
intended for capitalist greed
ball and chained to my bedroom
being fed to worship green
is the sound of a cha-ching
the god they’ve been programming me
to believe? 
002. connection it’s magic, right? engineering, magic semantics. marveled as your face lights up in another time zone on my screen in bed with me it’s a special thing disconnection it’s magic, right? engineering, magic semantics. mortified as dozens of bodies collide and combine into limbs and bones and burning, pleading throats don’t skip, help me, please incomprehensible feed on repeat on my screen in bed with me is this magic all in vain? swiping away another’s pain skilled inattention, skilled inaction and a growing collective apathy a few more swipes forget the whole thing it ain’t our reality is it? have we disgraced the beauty of this engineering? machine built to bridge away our individuality become one with everything mirrors into different realities a machine built for change in vain glowing in my face in bed with me always
003.
missing the feeling of
looking someone in the eyes
held there in time
discovering, uncovering
our masks
of
you and i
i want to look someone in the eyes
longer than a mere flash in time
i’d like to be hung up alongside that perfect disguise
figure out what’s got you looking so wise
i know
it’s far and few to come by
these days
afraid to meet each other
face to face
pay it not mind
we’re lucky they say, ain’t we?
got this aluminum tin between our hands
available at any time
to fill any space
of the possibility of merging fates 
004. can true love be found through a screen? when i get lonely and blue nobody to turn to the Machine’s got a list of suitors possible love interests not an air of mystery the algorithm knows exactly what i need i’ll give into recommendation connect with a profile on my screen still lonely and blue now guilty, too feeling robbed of adventure and uncovering things 'naturally' unsated desire for the way it used to be serendipity, happenstance, meet-cutes maybe in a bar uptown a grocery asile a walk down the street the library please, Algorithm tell me can true love be found through a screen?
The future is fun to think about but there’s some daunting energy especially for late January and the general vibe with Ai and technology. Who knows how time will unfold.
I’ve been listening to this Raveena album who has a voice of an angel and is an incredibly thoughtful artist. It’s a fitting track I’d say.
Thanks for reading! See you next year :)
The Internet Is Like Eating Plastic by Raveena: