The Definition of Zombie

Today in class we discussed the definition given by Roush in his article "Zombie Terror Alert!". He described zombies as "the human animal reduced to its most primitive and soulless state, compelled by only one need: to feed. All you can do is run." This got me thinking about what the actual definition in a dictionary would be. Merriam-Webster defines a zombie as: 1. a person who moves slowly and is not aware of what is happening especially because of being tired. 2. a dead person who is able to move because of magic according to some religions and in stories, movies, etc.

    The first definition is, of course, a colloquialism that describes someone's state based on the myth of zombies, so we can ignore it for the purpose of the class. Or we could, until Leah suggested in her blog post that technology is creating modern day zombies. Austin's commentary that he forgot to acknowledge his friends while walking because he was too busy listening to music just furthers the point. This point of view is something that is always brought up with our generation. It has lead to Facebook being listed in ground for divorce in over a third of all divorce proceedings in the past 5 years. 

     So I have to ask. Are we zombies? We, of course, are not dead. We are not existing solely to consume human flesh and there is no magic that is allowing us to walk around. But we are not truly living.  Are we so consumed by our phones and tablets and computers that we are missing out on life? Does staying up late checking Facebook and Twitter or reading Buzzfeed and Cracked articles really make us so tired that we cannot function as humans?

     Technology also creates a worse problem if we were to face a zombie apocalypse. We have gone so far from the days when people knew how to survive without grocery stores and gps that most people would die.