Screen Life

NaPoWriMo 2025, Day 3

Whole worlds dance by beyond glowing screens
Of mesmerized toddlers and dopamine-addicted teens.
Attention thieves refine their malgorithms
To feed ads to ghosts trapped in the machines.

Adults aren’t immune—we’re products, as well;
We’re being monetized in a different level of hell.
“I can stop if I want to,” is the deluded refrain,
But we’re capitalist cogs and there’s a world to sell.

Instant gratification is the currency of the day
It seems there is nothing we won’t gladly pay:
The climate, relationships, society, our health
To get free delivery and get it same day.

What next when the convenience addiction extends
To the ease of AI colleagues, lovers, and friends
Who don’t have pesky habits, opinions, or needs,
But exist only for us, their means serving our ends?

Our social silos threaten to further contract,
Atrophied empathy making it painful to interact.
Other humans will seem like burdensome bores
Compared to always-on AI eager to transact.

Individually and collectively, we’re being rewired
In an economy designed to keep us productive, then tired,
So we have just enough energy to get our work done
And then sit on the couch with the toys we’re acquired.

Is it too late? Not if we decide to wake up and stop.
We can talk to each other instead of talking to cops.
We can redefine danger, stop fearing the stranger,
Dethrone the oligarchs, and put the people on top.