People Nowadays ...

By Anonymous

 


     In this image, there appears to be a drowning person with their hand reaching out for help near a group of bystanders preoccupied by recording the event on their phones. The infamous piece has circled around different social media platforms, speaking on the implications of technology. This piece is also predominantly yellow, a color associated with illness, highlighting how technology and social media can be a sickness. 

    Simmel writes that modernization is characterized by an increase in individualism, advances in technology, and more rational thinking. Both individualism and technology are prominent features of this image. Simmel emphasizes the negative aspects of technology as he argues that technology hasn’t necessarily bettered the relationships of people in society. The message in this image shows how technology has taken over these bystanders’ better judgment of saving the drowning person as they care more about the content they get to share. Simmel argues that the process of modernization itself carries alienating effects which is echoed in this image as there is no interaction between individuals, rather they are entranced by technology. 

    This alienation is shown through the way the drowning person's hand is still sticking out of the water. Despite the bystanders' ability to see the signs of another person needing help, they do not have the capacity to realize that they are the ones that are meant to help. Technology has alienated individuals to feel less attached to real life going around them; emotional and physical distance is created between the strangers. Simmel describes this distance as being "determined by actors who establish and interpret nearness and distances in a social phenomenon" (Edles and Applerouth 2021:312). The idea of physical and emotional distance is present in this image as we can see that the drowning person is not located too far from these bystanders, yet the figurative distance is created by the distraction (technology). Consequently, the drowning stranger’s dire situation and proximity is looked at objectively or simply ignored because everyone is thinking about their own gains from the situation. Simmel writes about how the "objective culture comes to dominate individual will and self-development, or subjective culture" (Edles and Applerouth 2021:311). Simmel moves more toward an individualist explanation based on the collectivist logic that underlies the process. The bystanders in the image are a part of the same experience and doing the same thing, but are guided by their individual desires to satisfy their social media feeds. This image is consistent with Simmel’s view as I see that these individuals are perpetuating a pattern of apathy that becomes a routine as most individuals subscribe to social media platforms and isolate themselves more on their phones. Thus, these individuals are alienated from reality and are unable to see the rational importance of saving the drowning person and are engulfed by their emotional separation from the event – they have a stronger inclination to film the event. 

Sources

Edles, Laura D., Applerouth, Scott. 2021. Sociological Theory in the Classical Era. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.


Timfly. "People Nowadays." From lovethispic.com Retrieved January 29, 2023 (https://www.lovethispic.com/image/170620/people-nowadays).

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