Do Most People Live Fulfilling Lives?
It’s been 15 years of the “smart phone era” and it’s basically mainstream consensus that the new models have nothing going for them. From this key observation, we can project that in a decades time, smart phones will be the next flip phone. More importantly, we know by that time a new technology will have been phased in and from the looks of the younger generations, we should avoid it at all costs.
While it’s reassuring to see people are realizing that rubbing a glass rectangle all day is a gimmick, it’s concerning that this realization could be used against them. Chronic dopamine withdrawal could coerce customers into embracing the next big thing with open arms. For example, a depressed person hooked on social media would gladly switch their phone out for a pair of face-glued reality-warping glasses since it’d be hyper addictive and appeasing to their dopamine cravings.
I sincerely hope the people who admit smart phone usage is bad for them do not go along with the next new product, because enough is enough. Living a simple life is virtuous, so we should oppose new tech as well as activities which are dependent on its adoption, while at the same time distance ourselves from current tech.
What’s the “smart” life?
The smart life is not merely using “smart” technology but an over arching philosophy which demands simple things be complicated and complex things be simple. And so the person who leads a smart life will find the easy things difficult, and the hard things convenient.
Maintaining real life relationships is an impossibility to them, so using a complex network of computers makes it effortless to ignore them while keeping up with the other smart lifers and their alter egos. Not only is real life and online blurred together for them: online is their real life and actual real life is a fake and virtual experience.
The person who leads a simple life will find fulfillment from the little things, as in the smart life the only fulfilling path is to worship the world, travel it, live in its big cities, get a mindless job, and abandon family + tradition.
In other words, the once tall task of ruining your life can now be done with ease. Of course that convenience backfires, making life even more complex than it has to be. The self imposed suffering is not done to become a better person, it’s done out of pride, which makes life a living hell.
Smart Lifers are NPCs In Denial
There is no simple take a smart lifer has on straight forward questions. There always has to be an asterisk attached. “Does love exist?” " Well it depends on what you mean by exist, love is just a chemical reaction happening in a brain state of firing neurons." They grasp onto complex and cynical thoughts which have no effect on their day to day lives. “The Earth is a tiny spec whirling around the sun in a spacetime vacuum”. " We are basically just empty space as that’s what atoms are." “Billions of years of evolution has by chance outputted human beings who are merely meat computers.”
When given more complicated questions which completely up end their world view, such as “How do we ground values, epistemology, and metaphysics strictly in material?”, their answer is quite simple: “everything’s a physical mechanism, you’re wrong, trust the science”.
The smart life is to be pacified. It’s a life without spirit, a life without direction, a life without heritage or identity. A life without God.
The smart life is to worship worldliness. It’s to be enslaved to chasing after the nitty gritty details of infinite regress. In that regard there are some questions which truly do not matter, in the sense they don’t warrant an answer, for it’s worthless in the simple life.
The closer we get to God the simpler our lives become, because He gives us the strength to overcome difficult times and complicated matters. Once we begin unlearning every lie told in disgrace of God, we can start bringing simplicity back into our thoughts, especially in prayer, because we can focus entirely on God and remove the world from our concerns. The fact that only a few of us do this answers the headline question.
The smart life is not merely about using a smart device. It’s being a smart aleck - it’s the belief you are smarter than God. It’s unironically believing you’re the hero of your own movie. Such hubris leads one to think “I’ve beat the system!” when the system’s beat you.
How to Leave the Smart Life
You have definitely encountered someone, maybe a family member or friend, who was deep in the smart life. Trying to logically explain anything to them will be futile. All we can do is pray for them, and lead good lives by example. Leaving the smart life may take us most of our lifetime, but if we consistently set out to be under God’s grace, it will be all the more worthwhile.
Since the beginning, there’s always been a niche group of people living the smart life, but now it’s almost everyone. There has never been more sin gone unconfessed than the times in which we live. Living the simple life, as God intended, means dropping your pride. It’s knowing you can do better. It’s being in communion with God as much as you can, for that is a fulfilling life.