Digital Dictatorship!

There was an old, disconnected line in my house that the telecommunications company reminded me of when they recently demanded payment for an old bill dating back nineteen years; the company inherited the government telecommunications authority, including the bad debts. One envies the governments in our countries for their digital memory regarding their debts owed by citizens!

In addition to the aforementioned digital devices that have become constant companions, there is a desktop computer, a laptop, a digital camera, a digital recorder, as well as a television, a receiver, and a radio. This is just at home, and in my "modest" car, there is no shortage of digital gadgets, and at work, one also finds oneself in a field crowded with digital technology!

When I began writing this article, the electricity suddenly went out, and everything stopped, as if that failure was a silent protest against what I intended to write, for technology wanted to remind me that this matter is no joke, and that all the chatter about democracy is worthless in the face of the dictatorship of digital technology!

Anyone can imagine themselves without digital technology! Perhaps many, especially enthusiastic young people, would prefer to fast from food rather than part with their mobile phones, computers, and satellite entertainment channels.

If one wishes to give this digital technology the time it deserves to interact with it and enjoy its products, they would need more than twenty-four hours to do it justice. As for thinking about the financial cost of this operation, that is something that raises blood pressure and kills the appetite, and may lead to the courts if debts accumulate!

There is no doubt that digital technology brings pleasure, and it has a tremendous ability to impose itself on consumers to the point of addiction, and to destroy their financial budgets if they do not curb their desires! This technology has great benefits and is a nuisance to others! It offers various means for entertainment and spending leisure time, or wasting work and production time. It also has many negatives that reflect on social behaviors and people's relationships with each other if misused. For example, as useful and necessary as a mobile phone is at times, it is annoying, invades people's privacy, and is a means of destroying human relationships and creating problems, and perhaps disasters for some individuals and families. Even among family members, family relationships have shattered, and each individual spends most of their time fiddling with their mobile phone, communicating with others via WhatsApp, Facebook, and others.

Those who thought of producing this technology aimed to serve people and facilitate their lives. For those who lived a harsh life decades ago and are still alive, it is not easy for them to be convinced by what they see today. Thus, those who use digital technology today can imagine what the future holds for coming generations; the human mind does not stop moving and creating, and he who lives shall see!

theban100@hotmail.com