We live in a world where we are immersed in technology and segregated from nature. We now associate food, clothing, and all the comforts we have with shopping and commerce. We are constantly being bombarded with images and stimuli from television, video games, the internet, and other forms of mass media. Our mental environment is being shaped by advertisements and our home environment is being filled with material objects. We are quite literally becoming consumed by consumerism. In a fast moving world of images our mental landscape has become polluted and we are losing our identities. How are we supposed to know who we are in a world of superficial images, materialism, and instant gratification? Sometimes we might associate who we are with our job, our car, our clothing, our home, or the songs on our Mp3 player, or the contacts on our computer, email, or blackberry. But work is something we do, and it is not who we are. And the things we own end up owning us if they define who we are as a person. More people are using the Internet to make friends, or for dating, instead of going out in the real world filled with real people. The Internet is an artificial construct, and it should in no way define who we are. Online profiles list our name, sex, relationship status, our hometown, and are followed by lists of movies and music and hobbies. We are more than our online profiles, but in a world dominated by images, it is easy to get lost in cyber space. Socialization and conversation is becoming a lost art form in a world of instant messaging, and conversations interrupted by cell phones ringing and vibrating during a social function. It seems the more we are immersed in technology, the harder it is to find ourselves, and to find time for ourselves and those around us. Authenticity comes with knowing who we are, but in a world of images and brands and labels, many of us don’t know who we are. It’s not the technology itself that is bad, but it is how we are being conditioned to use it that is bad. If we don’t know who we are, a corporation will gladly sell us images, brands, and an identity, and without taking the time to self reflect and ponder about our true selves; we are nothing but consumers being consumed by consumerism.

-Jason Setnyk