Stealing Our Stories

It has been done by design, it is all part of a business model. Have you ever sent a text like, “Hey, what time are we meeting?” only to receive a mysterious and baffling “Yes” four hours later? Or tried to have a serious conversation with someone who was nodding along while watching a TikTok about a tiny puppy chasing its tail? Welcome to 2025, where communication is at an all-time low despite having more ways to communicate than ever before in History.

The point of the Internet revolution is not meant to bring us closer—it is to turn us into increasingly isolated consumers. It is simple. We should communicate with others as little as possible. When we do, the experience should be frustrating enough; so, we keep away from repeating it.

As a result, we have all become experts at avoiding phone calls, leaving voice notes that sound threatening and replying to emails with a thumbs-up emoji instead of actual words. Entire friendships now exist purely through memes, and, if someone dares to send a “?”,  you do not reply for an hour. This was a declaration of war..

The space for patience and real conversations is gone. We have all become the awkward uncle no one wants to talk to at family gatherings. And in return, we are surrounded by an infinite loop of other awkward uncles—reflected endlessly in parallel mirrors. When we do feel better alone, it is no problem; no one wants to talk to us anyway.

It is all part of a carefully engineered cocktail by the tech industry. The atomisation and dumb-down culture of social media nurtures shorter attention spans. Typing full sentences for the average human now feels like writing a novel.

The truth is that communication with another human being is a frustrating, time-consuming, and at times exasperating enterprise. Humans are complex, contradictory, moody, and conniving (not to say lying and mean). I know having a conversation with me can be sometimes frustrating; I have caught myself not listening or misconstruing what is told to me, omitting, or contradicting myself when answering. Unlike me the machine does not make mistakes, and the emojis are a lot more entertaining. Few things feel better for any human being from rich to poor, famous or anonymous than TO LISTEN AND BE HEARD BY OTHER HUMANS. Since the fire circle of the Palaeolithic, we wait our turn to tell our story. In a sense this is what all humans and their endeavours are—stories. When technology steals our attention, and filters our communication, it steals our stories.

If we do not start talking to each other again, the next generation might only communicate through GIFs and panic reacting to the messages they forgot to answer. Try not to download an app, but to make a friend. The more you look at the phone the more they win.