But here, you’re treated like cattle.

Sedated, reduced from the most capable creature on the planet
To just a pair of eyes and a thumb.

This is by design.
Why do you think every social media company
Created their own vertical video black hole?
Because it’s insanely addictive.
They call it persuasive technology,
But it’s really just enslavement.

Four hours on your phone?
More like four years of your life.
Gone.

What are you getting in return?
It was never meant to be this way.
The phone was supposed to be the “bicycle for the mind,”
Meant to take us further than ever before.

We harnessed fire,
We went to the moon,
And it was all done by people
Who were no smarter than you,
Without a phone.

You’re given one chance to play this game of life,
And they’re trying to trap you
Here, in this endless loop.

But now you’re awake.
You see it for what it is,
And you have a choice.

The decision is yours.

Stay there?

Or get off your phone.

Writer – Sophia Kong
Editor – Josephine Sim
Artist – Maryam Nawaz

–September 2024–