I've seen you in your bathing suit with that so and so who I may or may not have gone to school with and I think you work at Starbucks and you're studying to be a nurse and your favorite quote is from an older episode of Family Guy, which, coincidentally, is your favorite TV show next to Stargate Atlantis (3 people like this). Oh, right, we've never actually met; we've only virtually met.' Of course. None of this comes out verbally, even when your shopping carts slam into each other and an entire aisle of pickle jars comes crashing down around you both.
All of this knowledge of people we never knew, or would never otherwise care to, and yet, we're still very alone. Perhaps we love this easy street into the lives of others, and perhaps we want to exploit the chance to broadcast the best version of our own lives to those with an inkling for voyeurism. But for what, if nothing more than a digital 'thumbs up'?
It seems there's nothing real to take away. Nothing real is being given, and nothing real being felt. And I'm left wondering if this is how earlier generations felt about the invention of the cell phone or email or the postal service. Ho hum.
"If you're lonely, be patient."
We have a need to fill some void and we don't want to wait another minute to fill it. But in our haste to find validation from those who seem to be all around us at all times, our ability to express ourselves with utter honesty and charming vulnerability is lost, and subsequently lost is our chance to truly connect with someone else out there in this ironically network-obsessed planet.
I remember telling my little brother something I thought would inspire him and after seeing his facial expression I'm not sure I should be repeating it, but to paraphrase, it goes like, 'In this world you are incredibly small, but in your mind, you are bigger than anything else imaginable." The infinite universe, chance and space-time are enough to make anyone feel smaller than a grain of sand in the Mojave, but the fact that YOU are the one truth that can be confirmed by introspect and without aid from an outside source for confirmation, that is what makes you enormous, insurmountable and omnipresent.
He was ten when I shared this idea with him and all he could say was. 'that makes me fee lonely.'
My reply was, 'good'.
If you're waiting for some grandiose explanation for all of this bloated rhetoric, I'm sorry. It may be out there somewhere. Perhaps one of your friends has posted it on their wall. Either way, thank you for being patient with me.
All of this knowledge of people we never knew, or would never otherwise care to, and yet, we're still very alone. Perhaps we love this easy street into the lives of others, and perhaps we want to exploit the chance to broadcast the best version of our own lives to those with an inkling for voyeurism. But for what, if nothing more than a digital 'thumbs up'?
It seems there's nothing real to take away. Nothing real is being given, and nothing real being felt. And I'm left wondering if this is how earlier generations felt about the invention of the cell phone or email or the postal service. Ho hum.
"If you're lonely, be patient."
We have a need to fill some void and we don't want to wait another minute to fill it. But in our haste to find validation from those who seem to be all around us at all times, our ability to express ourselves with utter honesty and charming vulnerability is lost, and subsequently lost is our chance to truly connect with someone else out there in this ironically network-obsessed planet.
I remember telling my little brother something I thought would inspire him and after seeing his facial expression I'm not sure I should be repeating it, but to paraphrase, it goes like, 'In this world you are incredibly small, but in your mind, you are bigger than anything else imaginable." The infinite universe, chance and space-time are enough to make anyone feel smaller than a grain of sand in the Mojave, but the fact that YOU are the one truth that can be confirmed by introspect and without aid from an outside source for confirmation, that is what makes you enormous, insurmountable and omnipresent.
He was ten when I shared this idea with him and all he could say was. 'that makes me fee lonely.'
My reply was, 'good'.
If you're waiting for some grandiose explanation for all of this bloated rhetoric, I'm sorry. It may be out there somewhere. Perhaps one of your friends has posted it on their wall. Either way, thank you for being patient with me.
