Learning to embrace the speed of modern life
“I remembered reading that they were making sausages out of fish, and fish, no doubt, out of something different. It gave me the feeling that I’d bitten into the modern world and discovered what it was really made of.
That’s the way we’re going nowadays. Everything slick and streamlined, everything made out of something else.”
This passage from George Orwell’s novel Coming up for air has become a haunting metaphor to describe this glittery age we find ourselves racing to embrace and understand.
First published in 1939 just before World War 2 and the birth of the atomic bomb, two terrifying phenomena that would alter life and our idea of safety and security forever.
And yet I find the novel still captures the unease and paranoia that technological and industrial innovation presents our society in 2025.
A few years ago, we survived and emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, where we witnessed hybrid work environments, government distrust, the rise of podcasts and dying theatres and record stores
closing.
During this time the political world became more divided, with content creators sharing their ideologies towards their fanbases on social media and deepening the divide between liberals and conservatives to boost their followers.
We saw YouTube become the new television and now we are bombarded with unskippable ads and
more spam calls than ever before.
Cooped up in our homes while being forced to quarantine and social distance, these videos or
“content” we consumed became an escape from a gloomy reality we were struggling to accept.
You often hear people say they weren’t the same person that entered the pandemic.
All the while our cellphones, our apps, kept updating and improving.
Now these devices and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are operating at unprecedented speeds, effortlessly processing oceans of data and completing tasks more efficiently.
We are basking in the golden age of technology and witnessing the breakneck speed of information and ever increasing popularity of social media.
Particularly, Instagram and the obsession of appearing cool and having an “aesthetic” and style that sets you apart from the rest and pretending to live as a celebrity.
Now a photograph that would organically capture a moment has become exploited, filtered or polished to satisfy some personal idea.
In the past, reporters and the radio were the main source of information for the public who
had to verify facts before they were published.
Now we are seeing accidents, traumatic videos of violence and AI slop being shared at the push of a
button and spreading like wildfire online.
These videos are being shared and seen seemingly without consequence or any care to fact-check if this news truly occurred on this day nor if the contents are disturbing for viewers.
God forbid the graphic material enters the TikTok feed of a young person, reshaping their algorithm to ensure they’ll see similar content because they haven’t skipped the video in five seconds.
It’s as if social media has become a colourful zoo where visitors are gasping at graphic and upsetting
material whilst being unable to peel their eyes from the screen like numb and overstimulated zombies.
Now reporters must adapt to a world where research and patience are becoming relics of the past and they’re competing with endless videos being posted without being checked or edited for credibility.
Like the word “fast food” means a quick, cheap and tasty meal, people can become irritated and impatient when this convenience doesn’t fulfil its promise and they waited 20 minutes for their hamburger.
And yet after they’ve exhausted their lungs from complaining, once they’ve received
their meal they’ll bite into the meat like some rabid hyaena, with little care to consider if the meat
they’re chewing is truly the “100% pure bred beef’’ they paid for.
I think this is an apt way to describe why we should remember the importance of staying vigilant and distinguish between the truth and the lies being sold and packaged to
us with colourful gift wrapping.
