Thesis: The Death of Respect

              In this opinion editorial, I plan to argue how people of all ages have lost respect for themselves and others. In today’s world people no longer respect other people and their self, but instead they bow down to possessions and ideas, such as modern technology and the world’s presentation of ideal self-image.

            Technology has been used for good and evil. A lot of humans are convinced that the virtual world they always carry in their pockets is much more important than the real interactions around them. This is obvious as even small children get to play with their parent’s phone or iPad, and grow up attached to technology. The loss of respect for others and oneself starts young and keeps growing, as I have seen how adults will constantly be on their phone during a date or sitting on their laptop during family movie night. People have become obsessed with this not-so-social Social Media, which starves our perception of real life and makes it so much harder show respect for others.

            Now, about respect for ourselves. As I was considering this, at first I though, “people have lots of respect for themselves. They are constantly trying to improve how they look and are perceived, and always trying to get attention. They love themselves, so they are trying to show respect for themselves.” Then I realized that these type of overly self-interested people do not actually have respect for themselves. They have respect for the images the world cranks out of “perfect people,” and the ads that we constantly see for products that will make us so much more desirable.  Technology makes unreal standards for appearance unavoidable, and people are not only losing respect for others, but also themselves when they submit to the ridiculous ideas that the world has about who we “need” to be.

            Considering 21^st century technology and the ease of access that humans often have to it, it is easy to lose sight of what is real and virtual. Too many people let the virtual world overtake them, and therefore slowly disintegrate into a disrespectful, and therefore unrespectable disrespectable, human being.