Think back to your childhood Christmas lists, the ones you would complete months before necessary because the excitement was all too real for you. You wrote down an endless array of the usual toys: Polly Pockets, Hot Wheels, Easy Bake Ovens, Beanie Babies, Razor Scooters (yes, the ones that if knocked out your ankles would ruin your day.) It was miraculous the simple objects that could entertain us for hours on end.
As we began to grow up, those lists became more elaborate, and our desire became more intense to receive objects that couldn’t be wound up with a twist of the finger or driven on the hill down the road from your house. We craved something much more….we craved technology. It all started with an innocent admiration that rapidly progressed into an obsession. Our parents shook their head in disapproval convincing themselves “one day they will grow out of it.” Little did they know, we wouldn’t.
After approaching the door out of the restaurant this past weekend, I witnessed a younger couple ‘enjoying’ a meal together. I couldn’t believe that two people so close physically could be so far apart mentally. Immediately what ran through my mind is “how can a person be so intrigued by a virtual world when their is a real one dangling itself in front of our faces?” Then I looked around and noticed that 8/10 of people were doing the same. Mothers and daughters, friends, significant others, husbands, wives, grandparents, everyone.
We have learned to cling onto the approval of others through ‘likes’ and ‘favorites.’ Instead of fully experiencing certain opportunities in our lives, we are so caught up with capturing the evidence. A constant competition for the most followers or cleverest post has become our world. It has becoem easier to vent about our feelings in a status box than to talk with another human being face to face. At the rate some of us are at, eventually we will have forgotten how to hold a conversation and express ourselves by means other than a screen before us. We will have become so invested in our phones that they will have bought us before we step foot into a cell phone store.
The problem is we don’t even know what being present is anymore. There are so many new places waiting to be found, comfort zones to be broken, and adventures to be had. Why are we choosing to live through a screen? We refer to being disconnected as being away from social media, but what about being disconnected from the world? Our life? If our technological possessions were simply nonexistent anymore, what would we do with our lives? We shouldn’t be letting a single object be an obstacle or roadblock to living the life we could be living.
So when we get that urge to dive into the virtual world, instead, we should be asking a friend to get a cup of coffee, go for a long walk in the woods, read the book we have wanted to read, take a spontaneous drive with the windows down. Fight the urge to waste anymore time. Shut off your phone and open your eyes to all the opportunity that lies ahead of you. We were put on this planet as humans to explore and create, not as zombies to be nailed in one place. Lets not let the creation create us.