Stop and Look Up

I realize that we are doing more clickety clacks on the ubiquitous smartphone and laptop in rather painful, awkward positions and situations than people did on typewriters in their life time. I realize that some of them are slaves to their online avatar and have split personalities. I realize that people are more on social media than socializing in real life. I realize that they give more preference to thumbs up than others personal opinions. Finally I realize that we are usually online rather than living life on the line!

Are we really talking? Do you hear yourselves? Not those text based thoughts which rapidly transfer from your mind to those screens aided by those ultra fast fingers! I mean do we meet up, sympathize, and connect! I don’t mean poking or direct messages or even sending ephemeral enticing pictures.

How long can we look at the world around us without looking down? Where is our social etiquette going? On walls?  By confining it to 140 characters?  Are we really talking? Other than peering down our 5 inch screens and smiling discreetly? Are we becoming social recluses? I agree most of us share an intimate bond with our phones and the net, at least I do. But what if we looked up and saw the world with a different perspective and actually spoke to real people than those on chatheads floating at the edge of the screen.

All this rant was inspired by a video which is doing quite a bit of rounds ironically on the social media. It’s about how this generation has been paralyzed, how they put in more effort to wield influence in these online social spheres and make them more acceptable among their peers. It shows how small children’s childhood is curtailed due to excessive use of devices like iPads, phones etc. They are hooked on to it and it shows how swings are empty as they have become more technologically inclined. It also shows how a person loses out on life just because he takes a lending hand from Google maps. And then another contrasting one shows how he’s in search of an address and he serendipitously finds his future soul mate and how they do their bit to help further the human race. It exhorts us to look up and switch off that display!

These days there’s increasing number of young messengers who keep to themselves, almost drowning in their miseries, comforting themselves with a flurry of text messages, wrapping themselves up with a few old memories instead of creating new ones. Ultimately not finding solace anywhere and driving them to take drastic steps!

Stop and look up! Don’t let your life revolve around the internet or your device. Give more prominence to the people who revolve around your life. Talk with them, interact, and meet because sending random texts are just ephemeral and its void of an emotional connect.Stop and look up! Find and meet interesting people who have a similar wavelength(not virtually), share thoughts, (not by collaborating on evernote: P) smile, reciprocate feelings (not by using those trite emoticons and smileys)

As my friend put it, its all about social acceptance. More the acceptance, the more human you are. Does more likes on facebook make you feel like a hero? ( I do :P) while the person who actually clicked on that symbol would've done it either under obligation or while he was sleepy and they rarely do it on their own volition. Does more retweets on twitter make you feel important! Does checking in make you more popular? but for what cause? To make you seem cooler ? Does virtual activity really matter in reality ? How I wish the Klout score would have given us discounts! Be yourself and never settle for anything less!

No doubt that the internet has proved to be an invaluable mate to all of us all the time but it shouldn’t creep into our personal lives, so much so that we let it describe our emotion virtually. One of my friend who had taken a sabbatical from the use of whatsapp and other internet related social media described her feeling in one powerful word, “Peaceful” and another friend says she doesn’t use her phone when she’s with her friends and family and devotes that time to them exclusively. Yup I know that’s a difficult thing to do.And

posting asinine remarks on your walls like I’m feeling lonely, in a relationship and other bullshit, in hope of finding some answers from the 1000+ friends you have is futile. Instead look up, mull over life and the people you actually care and talk to them

Stop. Look up. Talk. Live in the moment