(dis-)connections

We live in a deeply connected world. As far as humanity can remember we never lived this way. This situation has many up and downsides.

There’s no doubt how much better communication is nowadays when compared to our antecessors’. It does not matter if you live on the other side of the Atlantic or in the other room, we can have real-time-enough conversations just by using something called Internet.

That’s beautiful.

Think about what life was like before the Internet and cellphones (and any type of long range communication devices such as radio). You would go anywhere and you would lose contact with your peers.

And the dreadful thing is that this other place could be anywhere, not just on the other side of the Atlantic. If you were on the same neighbourhood you would still lose contact. You’d go to another country or city and your family would wait weeks-months-years for news about you to be (maybe) delivered via letters.

Maybe that’s why it feels like communication those days were more thoughtful. People would enjoy more the moment, the connection with another human because they knew that as soon as they would part their ways, that would not happen again until they saw each other in-person.

We live in a paradoxical life: we are more connected AND less connected at the same time. What I mean is that we have all the means to stay connected - and boy, do we use them -, but we don’t share connections, we only have contacts. Everything is superficial, shallow, meaningless, liquid. We tend to not see value in those in-person moments because we know we are one WhatsApp call away from seeing each other again, even if it is through a block screen device.

The problem

With all this power in our hands we tend to have contact (but not connection) with a lot of different people and on a frequency basis that we would never have otherwise. That high school colleague that the last time you saw in-person was 20 years ago, now you both are contacts on social media and you can all see each other statuses of life all the time. ALL. THE. TIME.

That celebrity that you never saw in-person (and never would)? The same. You know everything about her. That person’s sleep schedule, what does she eat, where does she live, how, how many kids, parties, wardrobe, networth. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

Now the problem comes when you start comparing yourself to those people. You see their beautiful, happy lives on social media and you look at yours and it sucks. “What am I doing wrong? Why does she have all of that and I can’t? How? I am not as good as I think. In fact, I’m a fricking loser”.

I am sure that either you or someone you know had this thoughts at least once in your lives while on these situations. They drain you. These thoughts put you down and remove every last bit of happiness or contentment you may have had before.

“Comparison is the thief of joy” –Ted

Conclusion

We are not made to be in contact with so many people. This is against our mental capacity and our programming. Focus your energy. Guard your time. Think for yourself. Stay cheerful and constructive. Upgrade the world.

License

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