Spoken Word: ‘Technology’s Gift is a Curse: A Message to My Mother’ by Marisa Rios

MARISA RIOS – 1st PLACE SPOKEN WORD

Technology’s Gift is a Curse: A Message to My Mother
12th Grade, Ánimo South Los Angeles
Guiding Teacher: Clifford Campbell

Mother, you’ve seen the world before the screens
Before we wanted to pull our hair out and scream
I write this to you, not just to reflect,
But to ask you — where do we go next?

Technology, technology,
Such strange thing to see,
It can complete a task much faster than me.
Does that make it worth more than me?

I think of your hands, the work they have done,
Building a life before machines had begun.
Now wires and circuits claim they know best,
But do they understand the heart that beats in your chest?

Technology, technology,
A problem we can all see — or maybe can’t see —
For it works in mystery, behind the scenes,
Shaping our world, our lives, our dreams.

Mother, you’ve told me how things used to be,
When people connected without screens in between.
Was it simpler then, or was it the same,
Just a different version of this complex game?

Does it make us less?
Does it make us more?
Are we just the hands that turn the door
To a world where we no longer write our fate,
Where a spark of a code decides our state?

I look into the eyes of a screen that never blinks,
It calculates, it predicts, it pretends to think.
But, Mother, who am I if I never get to choose?
If my life is guided by algorithms I can’t refuse?

Machines create art, sing songs, write words,
But can they feel the way your voice is heard?
Can they understand the ache in my heart,
The human emotions that tear me apart?

Is this progress, or have we lost control?
Can technology ever breathe life into a soul?

Technology, technology — a gift and a curse,
It drives us forward, for better or worse.
But in this world of machines, I still look to you,
Waiting for a light that no longer flickers to pull me out of the gloom.