[The more I wrestle with digital technology, and particularly the synergy between the smartphone and social media, the more concerned I become for my generation. For the most part it seems the endless capacity for online self expression has enslaved us rather than improving us. How do we learn to deal healthily with an ever more connected world, and ever more immediate access to information and entertainment? This is surely one of the greatest challenges of our age…]
Behold Homo technica
Beleaguered, bit-bound
Quivering flesh
Transfixed by
Blinding tech tumult
Bludgeoned by bytes
Dragged by riptides
Relentless data deluge of
Dreary bursting baubles
Just so much
Flotsam on these
Polluted shores
Behold Homo technica
An overloaded node
Hardwired to
The algorithmic infinite
A fattened goose
Locked in digital gavage
Choking on incessant flow
Pecking plastic trinkets
Stomach stuffed full of
Synthetic fluff
Synthetic fluff
Detritus of distraction
Behold Homo technica
A gasping lung
Traversing strange atmospheres
Inhaling saccharine smog
This tree of knowledge is
A bitter, binding weed
Tendrils choking mouth and ears
A tepid god
The ghost in the machine
Haunting
Defiling each once-sacred space
The still small voice of calm
A phantom on the unfelt wind
Behold Homo technica
Consumed by his consuming
Sisyphus ceaselessly
Stuffing down a starving gruel
News on news on news
Views on views on views
In infinite regress
Meagre morsels
For mechanised minds
Glowing portals have become
His dawn sun
His twilight moon
Lesser lights to rule
These insubstantial days
Behold Homo technica
The social media animal
Born free yet
Everywhere in chains
