hello everyone I just wanted to say
before I start a nice thank you to
Oxford MBAs for organizing this whole
thing as well as the night last night in
the debate Society we had a lot of fun
so thank you so I’m going to jump right
into a story for you guys so I was
coming back the other night after a long
day of working with my classmates at
Judge business school we were working on
this very long product so I was very
tired and hungry and there’s one of
those typical rainy days in Cambridge so
when I got back to my my dorm I was
living on the fifth floor and I saw the
elevator was about to close so I
immediately jumped in to try to catch it
because I didn’t feel like walking that
day and when I answered I saw a girl
standing in the corner with one of those
oversized backpacks that you see
undergraduates typically wearing so I
said sorry for entering the last but I
hate to be that guy you know disturbing
the peace and all but but I didn’t get a
response from her perhaps she didn’t
hear me but really it was because she
didn’t see me and why is that you think
well she was hunched over her phone as
if the secrets of the universe were
contained inside of it
the world around her the elevator meet
simply did not exist simply did not
matter and yeah you could say well maybe
she was shy or she was sending a text
message or an email but the question I
want to ask is should this behavior of
not looking up and being aware of the
world around you should this should this
be the norm now man is a social animal
so when we’re happy we want to share a
happiness with the world and when we’re
unhappy and miserable
we need companions in our suffering
that’s the f ski the master describer of
human suffering and pain puts it this
way in a story of his a man is lying at
home on his couch and he has a terrible
toothache that’s been bothering him the
whole
they and he’s groaning this disgusting
horrible groan that makes everyone near
him want to escape at the the first
hearing of it
and he keeps groaning even though he
knows he’s keeping his family awake at
night even though he knows they’ll owe
them for it the groaning of course is
not making his pain go away the key
reason for this man’s groaning does TSD
contends is a simple desire to make his
family suffer with him to be a part of
it it’s a simple desire to let the world
know I exist
and I want you to be a part of me to
suffer with me now with mobile phones
you can grown as much as you want you
know wherever you are whether you went
to the supermarket at night and you’re
in line after a long day of work or you
just miss the plane at the airport you
have to wait six hours in the middle of
the night you can let the world know
about your suffering and pleasure with
your current state now
that’s one thing so I’ve forgotten the
rest but yeah but the problem is we’re
constantly talking to those who are
similar to us who understand us
essentially we’re communicating with the
world that’s a reflection of ourselves
and this is great in the process of
feeling good about yourself but in the
process you’re shunning the world around
you and because it’s not easy because
it’s not the default option now a friend
of mine Giovanni said well hasn’t this
been the case throughout all of the time
haven’t we always been like this I said
yeah yeah we have but the critical
difference now is that we’re constantly
confronted with this choice to either
engage with the world around us or
engage with the world inside of our
phones and more and more we’re choosing
the latter option because it’s easy
because it’s familiar and I believe this
choice is going to change things
drastically
now so I used to use Facebook I’m six
months clean now it’s been a struggle
but when I did use it
it was upped it was in the run-up to the
u.s. elections and that was a very
contentious point for me and for a lot
of Americans I don’t know if any
American I’m assuming there’s a lot of
you in the crowd but I remember I would
read these articles and I would get this
urge to post something to express my
dissatisfaction and just pure annoyance
with everything that was going on I
wanted to be heard I wanted the world to
know and naturally my friends are from
the same liberal and privileged
backgrounds as I am whenever I did post
I only got likes and comments like
preach brother preach yeah man right on
righteous and it felt I felt good I felt
really really good I’m not gonna lie and
anyone who didn’t agree with me was
either ignorant and uninformed now if
the last couple of years have shown us
anything it’s that we’re moving more and
more to this us and them mentality where
we fear the foreigner where we fear the
other and I don’t want to imply
causality but as you could imagine
everything I’ve said so far I believe
mobile connectivity is feeding this
division now I want to ask you when was
the last time you sat at home for a few
minutes and just did nothing I I can’t
do it I’ll be all you know it’ll be 3:00
in the morning I’ll come home after a
night of you know doing whatever and
I’ll be sitting on my bed and I can’t
sleep and I need to look at my phone
because maybe someone texted me maybe uh
maybe something just happened but with
mobile phones we have constantly this
need to do something and you know in the
process of trying to live life more
connected to the rest of the world we’re
ignoring the essential
we are ignoring the beauty of the very
an absolute present and and that is just
not going to be the right thing for our
mentality and the more and more we do
this we get into a world where it’s all
about my desires my beliefs my life
goals and gradually you pull yourself
further and further away from the rest
of humanity where life just becomes
about me me and me and naturally you
know I’m a business student this is
great for business perfect for business
corporations capitalize on our
individualistic tendencies to maximize
our own self-gratification and the more
we use our phones the better they know
what we want you know I’ll be you know
sometimes I’ll be on my computer doing
some banal thing and I’ll see some pop
up with an ad with a product that I that
I really want oh my oh this is great
that’s great but I don’t remember
searching for it ever or ever searching
for anything similar that’s kind of
weird that’s kind of creepy yeah and I
think this has happened to a lot of us
and this is going to be even better with
the rise of AI and Big Data where brands
can know exactly what you want and when
you want it and can deliver it to you
immediately man that’s that’s great for
business that’s great and it’s great for
the consumer but is it great for
humanity so Karl Marx describes the
history of mankind as the history of
man’s increasing control over nature and
at the same time he describes as it a
history of man’s increasing alienation
from society alienation can be scribed
as a concept whereby man is dominated by
forces of his own creation which
confront him as alien powers now what
I’m trying to say with this is that with
every technological innovation there
will be positive and negative impacts on
society but the critical difference is
with the mobile phone is as ubiquitous
presence every day when you wake up when
you go to sleep it’s always there
begging
be used it seems it seems we’ve created
a product that rules us yeah so what do
we do where how do we unshackle
ourselves I don’t think I had any magic
wand solutions but I can offer you a few
thoughts and observations from my own
personal experience when I was 11 years
old I attended a Catholic school for the
first time and as part of the school I
had a religious studies class which for
a kid who had just gone through puberty
is not the best thing you know on the
outset it sounds terribly monotonous and
boring but I loved it and the favorite
part of that class for me was the the
section on Eastern philosophy where we
had to sit in silence for 10 maybe 20
minutes you know no talking and yeah it
was hard at first but what I remember is
that in those moments I felt this
absolute peace and serenity that was a
complete contrast to my constant life of
play and activity and I think at a
broader level these pockets of not doing
and just being might be just enough
develop a better sense of connection
with the self and the world and when we
are doing I believe there’s a value in
reflecting on what you were doing with
Facebook and texting you’re constantly
thinking about the next one or the
previous one maybe we can try writing in
our own handwriting once in a while let
me give you a story on that so my
ex-girlfriend she was not the most
expressive person and when he brought
her into a group of friends that she
didn’t know she wouldn’t say much and my
friends would ask her ask me well why is
she not talking very much but at the
same time she was an excellent writer
and when we were doing long distance we
used to exchange handwritten letters
together and instead of calling on the
phone sometimes
and I’ve read those letters hundreds of
times and each time every word that she
writes every scribble or whatever is her
and there is no amount of Facebook text
and messages that could make me
understand her the way I did and do to
this day because of those letters now
you might say I sound like a romantic
well maybe not I don’t know well I am
but I think I think more and more people
are coming to this mentality you know
movements are starting across the world
to create these pockets of silence and
reflection away from the buzz of
information in Amsterdam cafes are now
refusing to offer Wi-Fi in public places
and in Norway students are working on an
igloo serving as a zone disconnected
from the rest of the house as Matthew
McCullough would put it information
similar to environment similar to noise
pollution deserves its own form of
environmentalism and when it comes down
to the individual level I think we can
all do things a little differently and
critically it’s the awareness that you
can act a friendly that you can behave
differently that makes us essentially
human and I used to tell myself and to
this day I still tell myself you don’t
have to smoke a cigarette you don’t have
to just don’t do it so the next time
you’re walking on the street or you’re
in Starbucks or you’re in the tube doing
whatever simply look up and acknowledge
the world around you
perhaps acknowledgement is the first
step to developing a better connection
of self and the world and after all had
that girl in the elevator on that rainy
day in Cambridge had she simply looked
up and acknowledged me giving me a smile
or not you might have been spared this
whole thing
[Applause]
before I start a nice thank you to
Oxford MBAs for organizing this whole
thing as well as the night last night in
the debate Society we had a lot of fun
so thank you so I’m going to jump right
into a story for you guys so I was
coming back the other night after a long
day of working with my classmates at
Judge business school we were working on
this very long product so I was very
tired and hungry and there’s one of
those typical rainy days in Cambridge so
when I got back to my my dorm I was
living on the fifth floor and I saw the
elevator was about to close so I
immediately jumped in to try to catch it
because I didn’t feel like walking that
day and when I answered I saw a girl
standing in the corner with one of those
oversized backpacks that you see
undergraduates typically wearing so I
said sorry for entering the last but I
hate to be that guy you know disturbing
the peace and all but but I didn’t get a
response from her perhaps she didn’t
hear me but really it was because she
didn’t see me and why is that you think
well she was hunched over her phone as
if the secrets of the universe were
contained inside of it
the world around her the elevator meet
simply did not exist simply did not
matter and yeah you could say well maybe
she was shy or she was sending a text
message or an email but the question I
want to ask is should this behavior of
not looking up and being aware of the
world around you should this should this
be the norm now man is a social animal
so when we’re happy we want to share a
happiness with the world and when we’re
unhappy and miserable
we need companions in our suffering
that’s the f ski the master describer of
human suffering and pain puts it this
way in a story of his a man is lying at
home on his couch and he has a terrible
toothache that’s been bothering him the
whole
they and he’s groaning this disgusting
horrible groan that makes everyone near
him want to escape at the the first
hearing of it
and he keeps groaning even though he
knows he’s keeping his family awake at
night even though he knows they’ll owe
them for it the groaning of course is
not making his pain go away the key
reason for this man’s groaning does TSD
contends is a simple desire to make his
family suffer with him to be a part of
it it’s a simple desire to let the world
know I exist
and I want you to be a part of me to
suffer with me now with mobile phones
you can grown as much as you want you
know wherever you are whether you went
to the supermarket at night and you’re
in line after a long day of work or you
just miss the plane at the airport you
have to wait six hours in the middle of
the night you can let the world know
about your suffering and pleasure with
your current state now
that’s one thing so I’ve forgotten the
rest but yeah but the problem is we’re
constantly talking to those who are
similar to us who understand us
essentially we’re communicating with the
world that’s a reflection of ourselves
and this is great in the process of
feeling good about yourself but in the
process you’re shunning the world around
you and because it’s not easy because
it’s not the default option now a friend
of mine Giovanni said well hasn’t this
been the case throughout all of the time
haven’t we always been like this I said
yeah yeah we have but the critical
difference now is that we’re constantly
confronted with this choice to either
engage with the world around us or
engage with the world inside of our
phones and more and more we’re choosing
the latter option because it’s easy
because it’s familiar and I believe this
choice is going to change things
drastically
now so I used to use Facebook I’m six
months clean now it’s been a struggle
but when I did use it
it was upped it was in the run-up to the
u.s. elections and that was a very
contentious point for me and for a lot
of Americans I don’t know if any
American I’m assuming there’s a lot of
you in the crowd but I remember I would
read these articles and I would get this
urge to post something to express my
dissatisfaction and just pure annoyance
with everything that was going on I
wanted to be heard I wanted the world to
know and naturally my friends are from
the same liberal and privileged
backgrounds as I am whenever I did post
I only got likes and comments like
preach brother preach yeah man right on
righteous and it felt I felt good I felt
really really good I’m not gonna lie and
anyone who didn’t agree with me was
either ignorant and uninformed now if
the last couple of years have shown us
anything it’s that we’re moving more and
more to this us and them mentality where
we fear the foreigner where we fear the
other and I don’t want to imply
causality but as you could imagine
everything I’ve said so far I believe
mobile connectivity is feeding this
division now I want to ask you when was
the last time you sat at home for a few
minutes and just did nothing I I can’t
do it I’ll be all you know it’ll be 3:00
in the morning I’ll come home after a
night of you know doing whatever and
I’ll be sitting on my bed and I can’t
sleep and I need to look at my phone
because maybe someone texted me maybe uh
maybe something just happened but with
mobile phones we have constantly this
need to do something and you know in the
process of trying to live life more
connected to the rest of the world we’re
ignoring the essential
we are ignoring the beauty of the very
an absolute present and and that is just
not going to be the right thing for our
mentality and the more and more we do
this we get into a world where it’s all
about my desires my beliefs my life
goals and gradually you pull yourself
further and further away from the rest
of humanity where life just becomes
about me me and me and naturally you
know I’m a business student this is
great for business perfect for business
corporations capitalize on our
individualistic tendencies to maximize
our own self-gratification and the more
we use our phones the better they know
what we want you know I’ll be you know
sometimes I’ll be on my computer doing
some banal thing and I’ll see some pop
up with an ad with a product that I that
I really want oh my oh this is great
that’s great but I don’t remember
searching for it ever or ever searching
for anything similar that’s kind of
weird that’s kind of creepy yeah and I
think this has happened to a lot of us
and this is going to be even better with
the rise of AI and Big Data where brands
can know exactly what you want and when
you want it and can deliver it to you
immediately man that’s that’s great for
business that’s great and it’s great for
the consumer but is it great for
humanity so Karl Marx describes the
history of mankind as the history of
man’s increasing control over nature and
at the same time he describes as it a
history of man’s increasing alienation
from society alienation can be scribed
as a concept whereby man is dominated by
forces of his own creation which
confront him as alien powers now what
I’m trying to say with this is that with
every technological innovation there
will be positive and negative impacts on
society but the critical difference is
with the mobile phone is as ubiquitous
presence every day when you wake up when
you go to sleep it’s always there
begging
be used it seems it seems we’ve created
a product that rules us yeah so what do
we do where how do we unshackle
ourselves I don’t think I had any magic
wand solutions but I can offer you a few
thoughts and observations from my own
personal experience when I was 11 years
old I attended a Catholic school for the
first time and as part of the school I
had a religious studies class which for
a kid who had just gone through puberty
is not the best thing you know on the
outset it sounds terribly monotonous and
boring but I loved it and the favorite
part of that class for me was the the
section on Eastern philosophy where we
had to sit in silence for 10 maybe 20
minutes you know no talking and yeah it
was hard at first but what I remember is
that in those moments I felt this
absolute peace and serenity that was a
complete contrast to my constant life of
play and activity and I think at a
broader level these pockets of not doing
and just being might be just enough
develop a better sense of connection
with the self and the world and when we
are doing I believe there’s a value in
reflecting on what you were doing with
Facebook and texting you’re constantly
thinking about the next one or the
previous one maybe we can try writing in
our own handwriting once in a while let
me give you a story on that so my
ex-girlfriend she was not the most
expressive person and when he brought
her into a group of friends that she
didn’t know she wouldn’t say much and my
friends would ask her ask me well why is
she not talking very much but at the
same time she was an excellent writer
and when we were doing long distance we
used to exchange handwritten letters
together and instead of calling on the
phone sometimes
and I’ve read those letters hundreds of
times and each time every word that she
writes every scribble or whatever is her
and there is no amount of Facebook text
and messages that could make me
understand her the way I did and do to
this day because of those letters now
you might say I sound like a romantic
well maybe not I don’t know well I am
but I think I think more and more people
are coming to this mentality you know
movements are starting across the world
to create these pockets of silence and
reflection away from the buzz of
information in Amsterdam cafes are now
refusing to offer Wi-Fi in public places
and in Norway students are working on an
igloo serving as a zone disconnected
from the rest of the house as Matthew
McCullough would put it information
similar to environment similar to noise
pollution deserves its own form of
environmentalism and when it comes down
to the individual level I think we can
all do things a little differently and
critically it’s the awareness that you
can act a friendly that you can behave
differently that makes us essentially
human and I used to tell myself and to
this day I still tell myself you don’t
have to smoke a cigarette you don’t have
to just don’t do it so the next time
you’re walking on the street or you’re
in Starbucks or you’re in the tube doing
whatever simply look up and acknowledge
the world around you
perhaps acknowledgement is the first
step to developing a better connection
of self and the world and after all had
that girl in the elevator on that rainy
day in Cambridge had she simply looked
up and acknowledged me giving me a smile
or not you might have been spared this
whole thing
[Applause]
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