Now I don’t know about you guys, but although it is almost unfathomable to imagine my life (especially as a blogger and photographer) without my iphone in my hands at all time, I do remember a time before everything went digital. With risk of showing my age here (oh who am I kidding, I could care less about how old I am – 29 by the anyway for anyone who didn’t already know), I am part of the generation who carried around 25 cents to make a call from a payphone, still knows what a and b side mean (two words: tape cassette).
As we slowly moved from analogue to digital we started with computers with dos commands, and then progressed to dial-up. Somewhere along the way, cellphones entered the picture, but back then it was all about the t9 keyboard and having to press 3 million times to type one full word. Fast forward to today and the little devices we call phones are actually computers a million times smaller than the original computer.
Sometimes I wonder what the world we live in today would look like were technology to have not advanced the way that it did. What would our lives be like without the internet, instagram, twitter, and all the other apps that will undoubtedly be developed and become the next big thing.
Clearly as a blogger and photographer, the internet plays a huge role in my life and I am so happy for what the internet has to offer. But part of me cannot help but think about the downsides to this brave new world: the obliteration of traditional office hours, having to be on call at all times, an inability to shut off, growing impatience when things don’t happen at break neck speed, the rise in egotistical behaviors and self-inflated egos, the growing loss of human to human connections, the list goes on.
I get really worried when I think about how self-aware humans in the age of the selfie have become. And while I know that in essence taking a photo of yourself is all in good fun, when pushed to the extremes, it’s downright terrifying when a two year old knows how to work an iphone and starts “duck-facing” into the back camera with her friend on an iphone (true story!)
Before the internet there was no such thing as “special snowflake syndrome.” And while I know that there have always been people on this planet since the beginning of the time who have thought very highly of themselves, having thousands of followers constantly fawning at a jerky gif of some girl blinking is kind of absurd. I can’t help but worry that our next generation of women are the current tweens and teenagers who consider a good role model an insta-famous girl with perfectly curated brows and a perfectly contoured face.
And while I have no problem with beautiful women or those who know how to make a business out of what they have been born with, I do worry that when these are the ONLY kind of role models young girls have, we are breeding a generation who places looks above intelligence, kindness, philanthropy, and creativity.
Which is why I feel that having a social media presence that promotes thought, questioning, change, and equality is more important than ever. The aspect of blogging that I appreciate the most is that it is a space in which anyone can put their ideas into the world and have them consumed by others. While this can be a negative thing, and has been the cause of the negative aspects of the internet that I briefly highlighted above, the more of us out there who blog from our hearts and try to create a positive community of free-thinking women (and men), the better off we all will be.
I can proudly say that I know so many incredible bloggers either via the internet or in person who work so hard at sharing incredible content and write incredibly insightful and thought-provoking posts. This needs to be celebrated in a world which seems to focus on all the wrong things all too often.
And so to you dear reader, for those of you who may be readers and not bloggers, thank you for sticking by me here on Love from Berlin and I hope that I am creating content that is insightful and more than just surface deep. And to all of you dear readers who are also bloggers, I want to thank you for taking the time to put your own positivity and hard work out into the world.
*I want to just put a small disclaimer out there and be clear that there is nothing wrong with beauty in and of itself. Nor do we always need to be thoughtful beings every moment of the day. But I do think that the world in which we currently find ourselves in is oftentimes too driven by superficiality and looks. And I just want to say that I think we need to do our best to put balanced content out into the world and praise thought and kindness above all.
Photography: Leni
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