Living In a World of Zombies?

Living In a World of Zombies?

Kiannah Dole, Photojournalist

Thousands of people already say that they will be ready for the zombie apocalypse when it arrives. Well, what if someone said that it is already truly present in our modern society? No, not those ill-looking, brain-eating zombies you see at Halloween or in movies! It is simply the people you see around you daily using phones, laptops, and other forms of technology. Certainly, it is not uncommon to see individuals of all ages using some kind of technological device no matter where you are.

 

However, over time, the advancements of technology and the easier accessibility to them has made many of us dependent and addicted to our various gadgets. In San Diego, for example, doctors documented the first case of “internet addiction disorder” involving a Google Glass. The highly anticipated Google Glass is a headset – which an individual would wear like a pair of eyeglasses – that has a prism-like screen in the frame’s upper corner to keep a person constantly notified of their calls, emails, texts, and more. This San Diego case involves a 31-year-old man – who will remained unnamed – who used the Google Glass for eighteen hours a day, and he only took this device off when he went to sleep and shower.

 

Besides the addiction to his Google Glass and the internet, this man had also been checked into the U.S. Navy’s Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program for alcoholism. However, it had been found by the doctors that his Glass detox was much worse than his alcohol withdrawal symptoms. Therapists also saw that this man continuously placed his index finger to the right side of his face when he was asked a question because that was the action to turn on a Google Glass.

 

Currently, this man is experiencing fewer withdrawal symptoms from the Google Glass and is receiving outpatient treatments. Technology is growing ever more powerful and present in our society, and this just the beginning of internet addiction and other technology-related disorders.


What if technology ceased to exist in the world anymore due to our inability to stop the “apocalypse” and addictions? Ria Chow (10) says, “It would a whole new world for most of us, but we could at least try to live how people did back in the days before technology was so prevalent”. Many of us will agree that we don’t want all of our technology to vanish; so watch your amount of technology use, Mustangs! Be a part of the high-achieving stampede, not the mindless zombie apocalypse!