The Light in Darkness

I find it interesting how reliant we are on light, particularly the kind sourced from electricity. And how just within the last century we as a society have become more and more reliant on using it in every aspect of our daily lives. Without us ever realizing the potency of its grip on us. We take it for granted and don't take into consideration the consequences of man manipulated light. Obviously man has always had an obsession with and desire to create light, look at fire, but now as we enter even deeper into this age of booming technology and our attachment to it increases, the affects of light exposure are more and more lost or forgotten by us. Even now as I write this, I take for granted the fact that I can manipulate the amount of light exposure from my screen but don't consciously take into consideration the affects of prolonged light exposure can have on my eyes, my sleep patterns, or my body's ability to register different light intensities. Unfortunately I find myself on my phone a lot lately and I don't like it. I think it is important to live in the now and strive for presence in your life, finding the natural lighting and natural way of being. But more often than not, I find, without even fully registering it, that I am once again looking at a phone screen checking and scanning for any new needless information that wasn't there two minutes ago when I, shocker, last looked at my phone. I never used to be this bad. I don't know if it's a tell of my lack of attention/boredom/sloth like tendencies now that the quarter has ended and summer is encroaching upon us and I lack motivation to pack up my entire apartment before graduating next week; or if it's that I, sadly like most of my generation, have too become more than healthily connected to my device that allows me to connect.

Modern technology is great. Lighting is no exception. But I wonder at what cost? Man manipulated and man made lighting have their place and the world now certainly wouldn't be the same without them, for better or for worse, but I worry for myself and my fellow peers the daunting affect this constant exposure to light through technology has on our mental health, well being, and general status. Lighting is great...unless you're a bird flying through a city at night that is filled with light pollution so you can't see...Then lighting kinda sucks.