Today, as I sat patiently awaiting the arrival of the Peapod delivery service for groceries, I pondered how wrong life has gone. Now to be fair, this delivery was a great deal and with limited ways to get around the city sometimes I took advantage of what was in front of me. However, I can't help but to think that all of this technology, and instant things have made things worse for us as humans. I have met more people with social anxiety in the last few years than I have my entire life. It was a rare thing 10 or even 15 years ago to met a person with social anxiety. Most of us didn't know what it was even. The question is was this always around and we are just now more aware of it, or has the world we live in made us become socially ill?
I myself suffer from anxiety, social as well as general, PTST, and depression so I'm no stranger to the woes and the ups and downs of living with this on a daily basis. I love the fact that I can text someone instead of calling, order food online instead of going to the store or calling, or even work from home without interacting directly with any human being face to face. Years of working in retail will sure do a number on you, trust me. Then add working in a bank and getting robbed and it changes your whole outlook in general. There are days when I order a pizza that I'm so sick with anxiety that I wish I had a cat flap that they could just stick the pizza under so I don't even have to open the door. To be fair, I don't live in the best neighborhood and I always hate opening the door to people even if I'm expecting them.
We live in a world of social media, and people live their full lives on there. They are able to write, interact, and even some will do things like Skype or Facetime. But what happens when you unplug and walk out that door? Are you alright or are you curled up in a ball in the corner. Do you find it harder now than ever to talk to someone, even those people you are may be comfortable with? I find that sometimes I want to hide behind the instant messages because it's easier than saying hello to that person in the shop. I hate it and love it at the same time. My mom suffered from crippling anxiety and hardly left the house. I think if she would have had this technology available to her then maybe she wouldn't have felt so alone and isolated. Now going through my own issues, I find the good in being plugged in, but I also feel like I'm retreating or even backtracking to when I was younger and had very poor social skills. I'm good with my loved ones, but ever once in awhile I even have to push myself to be with them and I love them! I much rather watch Netflix.
The decline in social interaction also leads to the decline in intelligence. People can learn from Google, or any other website but lack the real life skills to make the best choices. They can take all of their classes online but have no idea what it's like to be working in a room full of people. They can get good grades or do well in work, but feel entitled to everything because they have no clue what the real world is like. We can read or research anything including priceless art and cultures but are stories are less imaginative, more formulated, and less soulful. We are starving for art but feeding ourselves with a copied image. We forget how to sing and forget what is like to be truly inspired. Have you heard the top artists who are singers? That is proof enough of our issues.
Of course knowing me well enough, dear readers, you know what I'm going to say next. Firefly's movie Serenity was all about this very issue. The people were drugged and became so complacent that they literally stopped living. They didn't eat, sleep, or do anything to help themselves. They just sat there and let themselves die. Now that wasn't due to technology per say, but it makes me realize that this very real fear that someday we will become so far removed from ourselves, and the spinning world that we will except it, give up, and ultimately give in. A plugged in world is far easier to step on and hurt rather than a world full of people with passion, thought, and being adept to live and breath.
So what is the answer here? I'm just as much in this trap as any one else and I'm willing to admit it. This complex issue of what kind of lives we live is made harder by hiding behind this plugged in world. But it also helps people who are paralyzed with fear live a life they never thought possible. I guess I'm saying proceed with caution. There is no simple answer here but it is something that at the very least we need to be aware of. We need to find a balance between the worlds we live in because life is so short, and in a blink of an eye we are just a footnote lost in time.
