I’ve called out shopping’s dark side; now it’s scrolling’s turn.
If shopping is Money in search of a distraction, scrolling is Life in search of a distraction. And that might be an even more costly and destructive distraction Left to your own device has been flipped on its head. It used to mean allowing someone to do what he or she wanted or was able to do without being controlled or helped. Left to your own device can now mean being the controlled rather than the controller.
What if living life with a phone glued to your hand or a laptop tethering you to your desk is more than a harmless diversion? What if we’ve ceded really living to simply being distracted? Maybe Alexa is not all that amusing. The things she does for you might be things you’d enjoy doing for yourself or things that don’t even need to be done. If being left to your own devices is not be all it’s cracked up to be, the remedy is at your fingertips. Simply bid Alexa and her comrades adieu. C’est la vie. Vivre votre vie!