“WHEN you’re too busy looking down, you don’t see the chances you miss.”
This sentence summarises the essence of a video that has gone viral on YouTube called Look Up. Written, performed and directed by British writer, director and performer Gary Turk, it features a self-written poem which reflects on how being distracted by technology can impact our social lives.
So far, it has garnered over 40 million views on YouTube after only being online for slightly over a month. (It was uploaded onto YouTube on April 25). Turk’s video has also become the subject of many TV shows and news stories. I’ve witnessed for myself the video being shared multiple times by many of my own friends on social media too.
The five minute long video kicks off by showing Turk reciting his poem, describing how many friends he has on Facebook and the fact that he still ends up feeling lonely.
“The problem I have sits in the spaces between looking into their eyes or at a name on a screen,” he professes.
As the video goes on, it features various scenes of people going about their everyday lives, absorbed in their gadgets and oblivious to the world and the people around them. At the same time, Turk laments about how social media is a contradiction as it causes many of us to become more isolated and reclusive.
Some of the terms he uses to define the present condition of society may come across as a little harsh though, like when he calls it as a “world of confusion” filled with “self interest, self image, self promotion”.
He also claims that we’re “slaves” to technology we use and that we live in a place where “information gets sold by some rich, greedy bastard”. And he goes on to label today’s generation as a “generation of idiots” consisting of “smartphones and dumb people”.
Powerful message
Then, around 2:23 minutes into the video, the most poignant segment of his poem begins.
Turk starts to tell his viewers about a love story that takes place between two strangers that meet on the street. He goes on to narrate their journey through life together, drawing the viewer in as the husband in the story.
He finally depicts a scene where the husband is at his wife’s side in her dying moments, during which she thanks him for stopping to talk to her on the street that fateful day where they met.
It’s at this point that Turk chooses to bring us back to relive that scene and to reveal that none of it had ever happened because the man hadn’t bothered to look up from his smartphone.
Well, this wouldn’t be the first time that someone has tried to convey such messages about the dangers of being distracted through technology via a short online video.
If you recall, I once wrote about another YouTube video called I Forgot My Phone that essentially was crafted along the same theme. But where the creator behind that video, Charlene deGuzman preferred to show rather than tell her message, Turk says it out crystal clear.
Granted, it was probably a little over dramatised at some bits, yet there are truths and philosophies about life that Turk puts across here that ought not to be ignored.
Like how it’s important to “take in your surroundings” and “make the most of today”. The fact that “being there in the moment” and making a “real connection” matters because “we have a finite existence, a set number of days” and “when the end comes, nothing’s worse than regret”.
I personally liked the part where he mentioned that there are times when “you don’t have to tell hundreds of what you’ve just done because you want to share this moment with just this one.”
Strike a balance
Some viewers online have criticised the Look Up video though, saying that it is pretentious and that it’s ironic that a video that highlights the dangers of social media gains popularity through those very same platforms.
Yet others have, on the other hand, taken Turk’s message to heart and have re-examined the way they approach technology. Some have even gone as far as to delete their Facebook account.
In my opinion, I don’t think what Turk is saying is that we should all live as hermits and avoid technology at all costs.
In fact, he himself acknowledges in the video that he is “guilty too of being part of this machine”. I believe his message is more likely one of moderation in which we need to make sure we don’t completely lose track of the world around us whenever we’re in the company of our digital devices.
To be honest, my own love story involves a combination of both good old fashioned face-to-face contact as well as online chats. In fact, I think my husband and I would probably not have gotten into a romantic relationship in the first place had we not kept in touch online during the long periods where we did not have a chance to meet. So there are both good and bad sides to technology, it’s really up to us to decide which effect it will have on us and to avoid extremes.
Anyway, regardless of what our habits towards technology may be at the moment, I think Turk has provided us a good reminder to look up from whatever devices we have in our hands every once in awhile.
And given the fact that this was his first attempt at poetry and that it was shot entirely on his own DSLR camera, I’d say I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what else this talented 27-year-old will be up to in the near future.
Susanna Khoo loves it when videos that go viral carry a message that is worth reflecting on. She believes that a good video is one that has the ability to impact lives beyond its few minutes of airtime. Share with her your thoughts about this video or other interesting ones you’ve seen lately by emailing her at susanna@thestar.com.my.
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