Emilia Mäenmaa – Luddite

Video portrait of my best friend, a modern luddite

Translation: 

My father calls me a luddite. Luddites were textile workers from the 19th century who were against the industrial revolution. It’s kind of a cute nickname.

When I think about technology, it makes me anxious. And somehow I know and understand that technology makes my life a lot easier in many ways but computers, cellphones and many technological widgets make me anxious. And it has always been quite natural to avoid such things. I often forget where my phone is or I lose it or if I have to set my alarm I realise that I don’t know where it is. It makes me anxious to think that I should be reachable at all times, that everything should happen now. I’ve never had a computer of my own but it hasn’t been a statement – instead I’ve never felt the need to get one.

I feel like locality is something that defines me as a person. There is only a limited amount of things and problems that I can internalise at one go. And I feel like technology pushes me to a direction where we should be everywhere, like in the moon or something.

My mother has told that there is no way I can survive in work life without IT skills. I said well ok – that’s too bad. Then I decided that I will become an artist so that I can maintain my self-determination.

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