One month of digital abstention,
Time to shut down our screens for a bit
To quell our addiction to online attention
Just hold down the button to quit
Break free from the chains of LinkedIn
Shut down Facetime, Webex and Zoom
Let’s live for the moment we’re in
Here in the last chance saloon
Tinder must be deleted
(And Grindr, if that floats your boat)
Your life will feel much more completed
With truth as the antidote
Let’s forgo Fortnite for a couple of weeks
Just like an endurance test
Say ‘Hasta la vista, you virtual freaks!’
Your avatar needs the rest!
You must resist the itch to tweet
Don’t become a political junkie
No need to publish every meal that you eat
(Leave that for the Instagram monkeys)
What shall we call this digital prison
This hell in which we’re fully immersed,
Where we’re force-fed a diet of narcissism?
Let’s call it the Metaverse!
Pronouncements of 280 letters
Make not for authentic debate
Don’t become yet another muck spreader
Switch off before it’s too late
Snapchat may well be alluring
But we know it’s eroding our souls
It’s high time for social maturing
With some real life, responsible goals
Now, imagine your life as a video game
As you wander around the house
You can touch things almost exactly the same
Without a haptic mouse
Consider the calm that you will feel
Without need to comment or mock
You might even enjoy a romantic meal
Without checking on TikTok
Reality, not the virtual kind
Is unfamiliar with TikTok dancing
But freed from the digital daily grind
You’ll find life can be so life enhancing
Tech-vacations are more than essential
Uncoupling from our screens
Exploring one’s untapped potential
Without Google knowing where you’ve been
Our phones, you see, are Trojan horses
Listening to every word
So that armies of Outrage Archeologists
Can analyse what they’ve heard
So, don’t dance to the tune of the algorithm
That’s what it wants you to do
Believe me your sins will not be forgiven
When they come looking for you
Like fish we’re all ensnared, and yet
We should have guessed their game
When they launched the inter-net
The clue was in the name!
So switch the switch and pull that lever
For we know what we must do
It’s time for some decompression fever
Our deadline’s long overdue
Relax, the bends will soon disperse
As reality takes its hold
It’ll feel like a brand new universe
As life starts to unfold
So let’s go off grid for August
And do humanity proud
No need to be so modest
Make sure you shout it out loud:
“I am a living, breathing human
Pronouns, she, him, her and his!
I’m a free man, or a free woman
…whatever the hell that is.”
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