Distant in an evermore connected world

I think I miss a time in which I have not lived. In which the meeting between souls did not happen through pixels but through a hug. In which beauty was not measured by the outside portrayed through platforms but through the inside. I miss a time when the hand was holding another hand and not a phone. The time when boredom was healthy and practised and an opportunity to be creative, to create. A time when time was not measured on the hours spent on a screen but on how fast it flew by. 

We are living in an era where technology is evermore present, but what I feel is the absence of human contact. Of human interaction. Of human. 

Where did our natural feelings go? Where is the time when music, art, conversations sent shivers down our spine, shook our core, fascinated us, inspired us?

Existence is sometimes compressed down to a single square, gone in the scroll of the finger. Life is happening because we subsequently can portray it to the vast internet as another Romantisicm painting. Beauty is no longer subjective but an objective agreement some people fight with dear life to achieve. Admiration is not a compliment but envy showing its ugly face. Social circles are no longer circles of people but active dots in the cyberspace.

The Time Space Convergence model is a complimentary image of how I happen to feel at times. Geographically continuous distances are brought closer together by innovation in technology and infrastructure. So, temporally, we near each other, while spacially, we resume the same separation. Personally, I find this almost ironic. The distance, sometimes isolation, we still have is perceived as shorter, less significant due to modern machinery, yet it stays the same, will always be the same. It is as if we pretend, as if we are somehow deceived. Like the customs on social media platforms that are, perhaps, the opposite of social. We hide, we pose, we dissimulate in order to appear as the nonideal ideal. We think we are connected, yet data paints a frightening picture of a growing tendency of loneliness having a more prominent character in our lives. All around the world. We can be as bridged and globalised as we want, but what happens when loneliness destroys the pillars of the bridges, one by one? 

I know literature, music, and movies are idealised and an unrealistic picture of the world, yet whenever I appreciate the art from before my time, I am often struck with the notion of living without the digital extension of our hand. This is not to diminish the importance and value of technology, as we must acknowledge its capabilities. It is, however, a cry for attention. Look up from the phone, look at the people around you. Create contact, embrace empathy, recall relations.

Let us put the distance behind us and connect again.

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2 responses

  1. Helle Yding Sørensen Avatar
    Helle Yding Sørensen

    Amazing and spot on reflections, Sara. Waow…
    ❤️

    1. Thanks so much! <3 I just think it’s important to acknowledge this in order to understand how we can use technology beneficially while still retaining the human contact that is so vital for us all.

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