Lessons we can learn from Toy Story 5

When I was exactly five months old, the first “Toy Story” movie came out in theaters.
So naturally, 31 years later, when “Toy Story 5” came out, we had to go.
“Toy Story” was always one of my favorite movies growing up, and even as an adult, it has been a fan favorite in my household.
“Toy Story 4” released in theaters the day before my 24th birthday. My wife and I were dating at the time, and I remember how excited we were to go over to the comfy movie theatre in Mankato.
Unlike a lot of other kid movies, it always had a good storyline, and “Toy Story 5” was no different.
A couple of weekends ago, after going to an event for her aunt, my wife and I headed over to the movie theatres for an afternoon show.
Without giving too much away, the movie touches on what I find to be one of the worst parts of our society today: AI.
As I have talked about in past columns, I am concerned about news organizations — especially corporate owned ones — moving away from having real reporters, and instead replacing us with AI.
I used the example of this newspaper sending myself and multiple photographers to the state prep bowl, while the paper covering Kasson-Mantorville’s opponent sent no one, and relied on the school submitting a story, and then using AI to edit it.
You will never see this newspaper using AI to edit stories and certainly not to write them, as long as I am running our editorial department, and Rick Bussler, our publisher owns it.
The main plot line is a young child has trouble making friends, and the toys try to help, but inadvertently make it worse.
The child decides the best way to make friends is by getting a tablet, and the kids are seen “hanging out” but in reality are just playing on their phones sitting in the same room.
Not to spoil the plot, but ultimately, the child decides playing with toys, and having actual interactions with other kids is much better.
While this is fictional, unfortunately this is not all that far from reality.
Far too often, when adults get together to spend time together, they are often sitting around, on their phones.
I have been guilty of this way too many times that I care to admit.
How many times have you gone to your favorite restaurant or bar and seen people scrolling social media or texting non-stop? My guess is a lot.
How about a concert or a Twins game? Thousands of people taking videos of the same thing.
We can’t even avoid AI taking over our lives at the doctor’s office.
My first encounter with this was when I had my doctor’s appointment with my sleep doctor.
First off, the appointment was over video chat, like I was having a flashback to the pandemic.
Secondly, when I looked at my chart after the appointment I realized the whole thing was recorded and then transcribed by AI.
I have done my best recently to limit the amount of technology I use unnecessarily. I am constantly on the computer or phone for work, so when I stop working, I try to put my phone down for the night, as much as possible, even turning it off at times.
We can’t avoid technology. It consumes our lives.
But let’s take a lesson from “Toy Story 5.”
Go outside and talk to people sitting next to you at the bar or at the ball game instead of scrolling, texting, or talking to people on your phone.