Digital Gluttony

Nom Nom Nom

What are you eating?
What’s being chewed on?
What’s being spit out?
What’s being regurgitated?
What goes down easy?
What’s being input, programmed, or coded?
What lands heavy in the gut?
What makes you want to vomit in disgust?
What needs spicing up?
What is beyond bland?

Oh, you thought I was talking about food………...nope.

What’s your energetic diet?
What’s nourishing your soul?
What do you let between your ears?
What do your eyes set sight upon?

How many impressions are being made inside your mind?
What’s the bandwidth computing for your time?

Where’s the router routing?
What’s the neural network mimicking?
What are the subliminal segways searing on the grill at the “social” media hangout?

The fast-food nation that has sprung up in the land of convenience didn’t happen without first being made manifest in our energy and mind.

The rise of technology turns everyone into a cookie monster…. nom nom nom nom, more tv, more Netflix, more YouTube, more tweets, more podcasts, more scrolling, more dopamine…. less knowing.

The fragmentation of attention is hard to combat in an age where everything is being made digital, yet nothing works properly, and everything keeps us in limbo, waiting on something to load, to download, to off-load, to up-load…. it’s heavy, then we wonder why the load we were carrying feels “extra” heavy.

Forgotten are the days of the true digital landscape,  those digits that meet us at the end of each arm, fingers meant to do no harm….to hold hands, to give a honest handshake, to count our blessings, to create and make, to lend help, to receive an embrace, to touch life, to touch the earth……before scrolling we had our hands on the pulse of Divine intelligence, now artificially programmed soulless technology vies for our attention.

We live in a fast-food world…..chomping on soundbites and tik-tok bits, snacking on suggested “feeds” and giving Alexa tidbits to riff because it’s easier than asking our inner compass, it’s easier than learning by trial and error, it’s easier than looking for it in a book, having a conversation, or simply not needing to know trivial information at every thought…things that make us focus on the surface, the superficial, things that take us away from wisdom, from what’s beneficial.

Stuck in Cell-Jail eating Prison Food, come right on through, free meal for you, no cost but your time and attention, hungry for a new addiction, step right up onto another shiny platform under the big top, watch the data drop morsels right into your palm, your wrist, your fingertips.

Everyone’s guilty, if you say you’re not, I’d say your lying…these times are trying…these screens are scrying…. souls are crying…. the black mirror must be commanded and used to make something good, otherwise it’s a sucker, a fast-food forest of the darkest woods. Even the most disciplined users of technology have had moments where it hooked them in to its feel good food, glimpses into another world, but is it real or another falsehood?

Can you go foraging for fruitful wisdom?
Can you discern what’s junk, what’s food for thought?
Which talking head is steering you astray down a lost information highway where the only-thing open is 711 and a fast-food-chain-parade?

Pac-man ate everything yet filled up on nothing but empty calories and chased ghosts through black corridors that just circled around going nowhere. Was this a premonition for our artificial condition?

Are you eating a nothingburger of information?
Is your attention being harvested to drive data, to keep your eyes focused on a certain station?
Do you need a technological vacation?

Ask yourself, is what I’m reading true, useful or worthy of my time?
Is it making me think, teaching me something new, steering me back to myself, helping me discern…to get back in line?

When eating information for entertainment, is it something you’ve heard a million times before just re-packaged like a lunchable to grab and rush out the door….or is it offering joy, beauty, a reflection or reminder of a sacred duty, an inspiration to live more truly?

Fast food blankets the streets
but
It also travels the information highway
and
most of it is junk

It's not all bad, because here we are engaging in meaningful dialogue, fruitful discussions, thought provoking words, creatively crafted prose, soulful vibes, a corner of the internet for the wise.

Don’t let your mind be consumed.
Put on some good tunes and dance around the room (here’s a fav song)
Take a break from always letting things in.
Set boundaries for technology, lift up your chin.

Take time to process and implement what you learn, don’t eat another video, let dopamine take hold and suck you inside of its digital urn.

Don’t open up black holes and black mirrors, forgetting there’s more to life waiting for you to become clearer.

Digital Gluttony is a form of fast food, pushing to make everything easier, to let AI write it for you, constantly fighting the urge to “check-in” and opening up channels for endless advertisements, most of which are just one more thing we don’t need to let in.

Read a Real Book.
Go to a library.
Love your eyes.
Love your mind.
Love yourself.
Don’t get stuck on a digital shelf.
Don’t get distracted by gurus of self-help.
Don’t eat tik-tok posts for dopamine ghosts.
You could tweet, or meet a bird on the street…and listen to its song.
You could finish reading this, then turn it off….and go for a walk….make it long.

At our fingertips is a vast array of information, putting us in a position to fall into another form of mindless consumerism or purposeful and useful information that is nourishing.

Are you eating it like fast food or making a reservation to pull up to the table, carefully selecting from the menu what has the most flavor?

Many people are a lot like AI, learning “tips and tricks” to manipulate you into buying what they are selling, propping up your weaknesses and pain points as something that they “claim” they can help you quickly fix, talking heads that talk a lot but all they ever say is from air that’s hot. It’s a madhouse of the same old thing, like a pushy car salesmen amplified behind these screens.

Seek out voices that aren’t as often heard, those real truth tellers or creatives that have left the herd…the ones who should have a million followers but aren’t promoted because they don’t fit the mold or kiss up to the machine…those who don’t holler to hear their own voice, those who care about art, beauty, music…and choice.

Remember, AI is programmed, it can only produce as good as its programmer. It can only feed information that is inputted.  It is limited, but there’s an infinite well of connection to Source inside of you waiting for you to hear it, to output from that North Star shining inside….it is a guide….it is alive…. don’t stuff it down, don’t hide useless information inside your bones…. don’t let the good stuff die….don’t get lured into the fast-food of digital gluttony.

If we’re always bent over, we can never stand up straight as sovereign beings, the phone hunch is removing backbones in the literal sense. If ever there was a time to stand up for something, it is now. While technology can be good, can make some things easier and give opportunity for unique ways to connect with others far beyond our own backyard, we must not forget that our backyard also holds adventure, connection and wisdom….it longs for you to remember…some things can’t be learned through information, through a screen….because we need to experience, we need to remember how to properly dream and connect with all living beings….in the real, in what we can touch, see and feel.

With Love and a reminder to Take Tech Breaks (a definite note to self)
Angela