Algorithms

Algorithms.

Algorithms within algorithms.

There’s no colour, no beauty, no humanity in these algorithms.

They are digital demons. They are infinite prisons.

These strings of code are sticks of crack.

These notifications are dopamine doubling doses directly injected into our minds.

They are the worm in our ear.

Calling all so sinister as Cambridge Analytica.

Whose terms and conditions are our favourite omissions.

So, we give our permission, whatever their ambition, for them to break our world into pixel-sized pieces and piece it back together as they see fit.

We are the sheep. The blind sheep, mindlessly marching off the edge of the cliff, and the more we stare into our screens the less happy we are with what we see when we look away.

O Captain! my Captain! Tell me what to see when I look at me.

Whisper those knives into my pride that I am not enough.

Make me believe I should be like those other ones.

Those filtered ones.

Those ones smiling behind insincerity.

Those ones in the picture chosen from fifty pictures.

O Captain! my Captain! Lead me into temptation that only causes frustration.

That slides me down spirals into self mutilation, and I know teen self harm has nearly tripled, and that proves you’re leaving us crippled. But I just can't stop tapping, scrolling, swiping.

But I'm not addicted.

I can put it down whenever I want to, but I don't want to.

Addiction is an affliction suffered by the weak.

But each week I continue to feed the beast until it feels normal to never be at peace.

To always need that small black block nearby.

In my hands or in my pocket.

I don't need it. Just please don't lock it away. Because, who knows, today might finally be the day where I find the happiness I'm looking for in this digital dastardliness.

Every tap taps me closer I swear, so why look elsewhere when happiness is there.

Trust me. I'm the happiest I've ever been.

So, why would I put my phone down, and look around, and realise how big my life can be when it doesn’t have to fit inside a screen?