Are today’s digital devices succeeding in making us more and more isolated?  Our motivation to connect and relate to others has been reduced to ‘like’ and ‘share’ on social media. Sit in any staff cafeteria, coffee shop or airport lounge and see how disconnected humans have become to the present moment. We’re encapsulated in this imaginary bubble, our minds connected with the rest of the world via the device in our hands, while what is happening all around us moment by moment is completely disregarded.
While we share the very best of ourselves from the finest of a large selection of photographs, we miss out on the entirety of human connectivity. Â More and more I see couples or families in restaurants sitting at the same table, transfixed by their cell phones, missing out on the opportunity to enjoy eye contact, conversation and all the affectionate words & gestures that kindle our hearts and express what it means to be human. Â While comments from our, say, 1500+ friends inflate our minds with a false sense of affirmation and integration, our hearts are shrinking.
Truth is, it is so much simpler to send a WhatsApp message or tweet than to engage in the immensities and perplexities of life, for yes, life is huge and quite a force to be reckoned with. Â We need to source the courage to re-connect with ourselves and others with sincere, heartfelt engagement so that we may feel, share, relate, commit and grow. Â Life is abundant, inviting us to attend to an entire gamut of emotions, sensations and feelings which we express with our faces, voices, body language and even more powerfully, with our intentions. A digital message cannot begin to compare with that kind of expression. Â It’s flat, lifeless and colorless and as cute as emojis are, they just don’t cut it.