It was on Chuseok—the Korean Thanksgiving Day— when I forgot to bring my smartphone with me. Unfortunately, it was not until our family arrived at Grandmother’s house that I found out this fatal mistake. So, I started 24-hour of abstinence all of a sudden.
At the beginning of the day, it was just the busiest Chuseok in my life since I constantly wandered around the kitchen to hunt for anything I can help my grandmother and my mother with. Unexpectedly, they were sincerely thankful for my small assistances. Before then, I had thought that it would be worse for them if I stand in the middle of the hectic kitchen; but I was wrong. For about four years, I was too soaked with my phone to afford to consider autonomous behaviors. I might have become the next ‘Vashti’, in 「The Machine Stops」. …show more content…
She says “I do not get them—ideas— anywhere else.” From my point of view, the concept of ‘idea’ mentioned on the paragraph is not the superficial thing that we can easily pick up but what we can attain only with our independence. It looks like she merges into the machine, which leads her to the world where she does not need to ponder anymore in order to gain something. Since everything surrounding her is programmed, she is liable to doing what the machine designs, though she would believe that every her choice comes from her own intention. In my case, I do not know when I have become accustomed to consuming my time mainly on my phone. Maybe I was already on the process of being subject of smartphone like Vashti regarding the machine as the omnipotent. As McLuhan claims, the medium itself influence how we think and act. Thanks for my smartphone’s absence, I could spend my time more independently and meaningfully in that I did not unconsciously follow routine motions such as flicking, scrolling, and swiping on the device; I really jumped into the genuine activity for my loved
At the beginning of the day, it was just the busiest Chuseok in my life since I constantly wandered around the kitchen to hunt for anything I can help my grandmother and my mother with. Unexpectedly, they were sincerely thankful for my small assistances. Before then, I had thought that it would be worse for them if I stand in the middle of the hectic kitchen; but I was wrong. For about four years, I was too soaked with my phone to afford to consider autonomous behaviors. I might have become the next ‘Vashti’, in 「The Machine Stops」. …show more content…
She says “I do not get them—ideas— anywhere else.” From my point of view, the concept of ‘idea’ mentioned on the paragraph is not the superficial thing that we can easily pick up but what we can attain only with our independence. It looks like she merges into the machine, which leads her to the world where she does not need to ponder anymore in order to gain something. Since everything surrounding her is programmed, she is liable to doing what the machine designs, though she would believe that every her choice comes from her own intention. In my case, I do not know when I have become accustomed to consuming my time mainly on my phone. Maybe I was already on the process of being subject of smartphone like Vashti regarding the machine as the omnipotent. As McLuhan claims, the medium itself influence how we think and act. Thanks for my smartphone’s absence, I could spend my time more independently and meaningfully in that I did not unconsciously follow routine motions such as flicking, scrolling, and swiping on the device; I really jumped into the genuine activity for my loved