Kori Jane Spaulding, a young poet, has written a sobering poem speaking to the negative impact of phones on her generation titled “It Was the Damn Phones”.
Here is an excerpt:
We used to be scared of robots gaining consciousness, a lie by the media companies.
To keep us distracted enough, so not to become conscious of the mess they created.
We are the robots. We are the product. And so I sit and I scroll and I rot on repeat.
Sit and scroll and rot.
Until my thoughts are what is being fed to me on TV,
until my feelings are wrapped up in celebrities,
until my body is a tool of my political identity.
I sit and I scroll and I rot.
And I post on the internet how the internet has failed us
so that I may not fail my internet presence. I think our parents were right.
It was the damn phones.1
What does this have to do with investing, you might ask? Plenty.
You too—no matter your generation—are likely saturated with investment opinions being mediated to you through your screen.
As a Wealth Advisor, I might add a stanza about the impact of phones upon personal finance and investment allocation:
Until my own thoughts about investing for affluence are determined by algorithmic influence,
until I treat investing like it’s a bet on draft kings.
Exchanging long-term gardening for short-term gambling.
Trading my future self’s destiny for endless hits of dopamine.
I sit and I scroll and I rot.
Don’t let your investment decisions be reduced to what you’ve ingested through your screen’s algorithm.
If you need help, reach out to us.
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Sources:
- “‘It was the damn phones’: A Gen Z poet conveys the effects of the phone-based childhood”, Upworthy. Accessed online: https://www.upworthy.com/it-was-the-damn-phones-a-gen-z-poet-conveys-the-effects-of-the-phone-based-childhood