People are absent. They are constantly absorbed in their devices — iPhones, laptops, iPads. I am overwhelmed by the image of glowing apples as I walk into a lecture hall. It is lit not with the faces of fellow college students but with open Macbooks.
Our generation is obsessed. From social media to text messaging, the only connections we seem capable of maintaining are bridged by technology. For someone who desires genuine, personal interactions with other human beings, life in the 21st century is an uphill battle. Trying to strike up a conversation with somebody is like hiking to the peak of a mountain only to realize that it’s just an overlook. It’s unfulfilling and disheartening. No one seems to remember how to communicate face to face — or maybe they never learned.
Technology has its values. It’s an egalitarian system that makes information accessible to all. It allows individuals to connect over distances. I don’t know how I’d go for months without communicating with my mom (except through written letters… remember the Post Office?!). Thanks to cellphones, I don’t have to. But this does not diminish the problems which have escalated over the past decade.
Walking around a college campus, I witness a population of bent necks and gliding thumbs. Only it’s not as beautiful as it sounds. Nobody looks up to greet friends, nobody attempts to make way for strangers. We have narrowed our view to our own paths. We have become selfish. And we have become insecure.
Unlike texts, you cannot erase and retype a spoken sentence. Reality does not allow you to hide emptiness behind smiling Instagram photos. It demands authenticity. Texts can be carefully crafted to expose a chosen side of someone and to hide true character. You can no longer read a person or understand who they are- they are hidden behind a veil of typed words and emoticons. And because technology allows us to camouflage parts of ourselves from the wider world, we put more thought into which flaws to hide- which aspects of ourselves deserve to be pushed away. This is the opposite of what we should be doing.
Flaws demand acceptance. Dissatisfaction with oneself cannot be ignored. It can only be repressed for so long. How can one possibly lift feelings of personal discomfort if they do not confront their flaws head on? We will go through our lives filled with insecurity, treading lightly and without zest if we do not accept each and every part of ourselves. And this journey of acceptance begins with reaching out to others. They discover the pieces of you that you have not yet discovered for yourself.
So I challenge you to put your phone down and give your thumbs a rest. Enjoy someone’s company; have a friendly conversation with that girl or guy you sit next to in class. Get to know them beyond the color of their hair and the shoes that they wear. Rebounding from our careful, technology driven culture into one more aware and open is going to be a challenge. But if we were there before, we can get there again.
Image courtsey of cmswire.com.