A good friend and I were discussing the world in general yesterday and because we are reasonably old and vaguely wise we came to some conclusions that will not really be a surprise to anyone. They are not earth-shattering but I think some things need to be said and a plea needs to be made.
Okay...here goes...PUT DOWN THE PHONE...okay I feel better now. It's not just phones though and I am including this device, my kindle, my TV, my phone, any and everything that disconnects me from what is real.
Now, lest you think I am one of THOSE people who pontificate about how they have read 12 million books and would never own a TV because they are just so not cool. I have a big ass, HD, smart TV that I spend way too much time in front of watching some stuff that is entertaining and informative, some stuff that is just sport...a lot of sport, some stuff that is just mindless and some stuff that is way too dark and I need to leave it alone. I have a long history with TV.
My first babysitter thought the secret to babysitting was to prop my up in front of the TV all day and go about her business. I mean she literally had to prop me upright with pillows because I was less than a year old and could not sit up on my own. So I have been staring at those images all my life. And as my friends will tell you...if I am really engrossed in something I will not only not hear what you just said but I will not even have heard the sound of your voice.
The problem with this and our fascination will all things media related...especially social media related is that we create these weird illusions that this stuff is "reality". All media, including print media, delights in convincing us that there is this perfect world with these perfect people who look perfect and act perfect and it's all a lie. When we were little we were fed these images of what a family should look and act like and then blamed our parents when our reality did not match "Father Knows Best" or "Leave it to Beaver" etc....
It strips the humanity away from all of us by not showing our human habit of messing stuff up. We make mistakes. We are not perfect. We are human beings and we judge ourselves and others by the misdirection of the media.
Now do I think the media are all liars and out to get us and spreading "fake news" everywhere? No people...I am not getting into politics or even religion. I am simply talking about the day to day bombardment of our brains with imagery not of our own making. The little things, the subtle things...the things we do not even notice.
What worries me is that we are becoming more and more tribal and less and less connected to the world at large. My personal struggle is that I am an introvert by nature and all these distractions simply enable me to become more and more introverted and less and less connected to my family and friends. I have noted a few times lately that people I only vaguely know are more knowledgeable about my cousins than I am. That was a wake-up call. What am I doing? Am I just too lazy to make the effort to be more in touch with their lives? I have often said that I would ditch social media if not for that fact that I would lose all touch with my cousins? Is that really true? Am I really that lazy that I can't be bothered to just call and check on them?
I don't think I am alone here. I think a lot of us are becoming more and more introverted and withdrawn into our own tiny tribes. The media, both left and right have done a lot of damage in polarizing us into these camps. Into these tribes. We don't trust one another if we are not in the same tribe. We are more judgmental and more cruel to those who don't think or believe the way we do. We have lost a lot of openness. Our brains are constantly bombarded with all this information and all these images and we are all on overload and in danger of shutting down.
So this is a plea for everyone to try just a little bit to accept our imperfect reality and embrace what is actually real. Put down the devices and go outside. Touch a tree. Look at the sky. Really LOOK at the world around you. Meet a friend for lunch. Talk to one another. Embrace the fact that we will never be perfect and give your brain some room to accept other images of real things and of real people and real emotions. Free up some space in your brain for things much more simple. The sun streaming through the window on a winters' day. The little poodle farting on your lap. Try to be more present in the moment. We need to shut down and re-boot people. We need to breathe.
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