Are we the controllers or the controlled?

Are we the controllers or the controlled? This question seems to have a straight forward answer of either yes or no. We humans can control the environment around us as we have done so for centuries by building new structures and changing our landscape. On the other hand we are controlled by many things in this world.

One example is that we are controlled by nature, we are currently using up all of the earth’s resources and it has only just recently that we have realised that we are causing the earth problems. So ultimately if we do not control what we take from the earth we will suffer from a lack of resources. This is what happened to the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island, they took all of the islands resources and in turn sealed their fate as they could no longer live the way they had when the island was abundant with resources, in turn nature had become the controller as the Rapa Nui people were forced to change their way of life.

Also these days in the twenty first century we have lots of brand new technology such as mobile phones, televisions and the internet. These can take control of our lives as we hear about people who go on online gaming marathons that can jeopardise their health and wellbeing as well as their social life. These people are addicted to the video games as they allow themselves to create a life on the web completely different to their own lives in the real world. Mobile phones have allowed us to communicate across long distances but we have also become addicted to them, many teenagers become reliant on their mobile phones and they can be on them talking or texting all the time. We also find it hard to study when we could be talking to friends this can cause grades to drop therefore damaging our chances of getting into university. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace can also eat up at the amount of time we spend studying or doing other things. We in turn become addicted to these sites as they allow us to escape from everyday life.

The internet can control us by taking away our freedom but other people can also control us through the internet. Cyber bullying can happen through the internet or through mobile phones by using text messages or posting things on the internet. Cyber bullying can escalate to points where the victim can exclude themselves from contact with other people, take up something dangerous or even commit suicide in extreme cases. Also the government can take control of what we can view on the internet by censoring what they do not want us to see, one example of this is in the Peoples Republic of China where internet censorship is tightly controlled by the government. I have read an article about a riot happening in China and that the government had shut down all access to the internet in that region they also changed the information that the general population was to receive about the incident. A video that I have also watched recently called “Du Bist Terorrist” (You are a Terrorist) also raises concern for me as the video shows what the government can do to us through the internet they can find our location through when we use our mobile phones, see who we are chatting to on MSN and even block us from accessing sites. The government can also impose laws that allow them to access all files on our computer browse through all our personal documents, images and videos download them and then edit them or completely add new files that are entirely different to the originals.

I believe that we are the controlled in this world as we rarely make choices about what we buy or what we watch on television as television ads can influence what and where we buy things. Companies advertise on television to reach a broader audience but this allows the company to entice more people into buying their goods by advertising sales and special deals and bonuses if you shop at their stores, this then influences people to spend money at the stores and the company reaps in the money. Television is a powerful medium that allows companies to change the way we think one example is beer advertising in some countries. In those countries advertising someone drinking beer may be illegal and the companies are forced to use clever techniques such as subliminal imagery to create the thought in the viewers head to actually buy the beer.

We as human beings are controlled or at the very least influenced by everything around us be it material items such as mobile phones and the internet or what we see on the television or on the news everything around us can cause thoughts or ideas in our minds and this can cause us to take actions based on the influences we receive from the outside.