I don't remember where or when i read this article but it basically said that a study showed that people don't like to interact with other people. The example used was the supermarket where the vast majority of people would prefer automated checkouts vs. dealing with a living breathing cashier. People embrace the internet because you just don't have to deal with anyone if you don't want to. There is always the "log off" button and things that happen on the web don't really have any impact on real life, at least not unless you want them to.
Forget the internet, we don't seem to want to notice each-other on the street. A friendly smile is often treated as a sign of mental problems or worse... Accidentally making bare skin contact with another is making us uncomfortable. A man openly looking at a beautiful woman, admiring her as god's work of art may be judged as a weirdo. We lost the art of chivalry, a woman needs to thank a man holding the door for her as it is no longer expected by default. We leave items we decided against buying wherever we stand in the supermarket - it is someone else's job to put them back on the right shelf, right? We don't mind hitting another car as we park or open the door to get out of the car, it is just a ding, right? We don't mind sitting in the crowded bus with an elderly standing right in front of us, we have the right to do so, no?
Are we giving up on each-other? or is it just that we are too busy piling on that tough skin armor that we fail to notice each-other? I mean really notice each-other. Not as objects that we just need to get around, get by or deal with until we don't have to any more but as human beings. Have we lost respect for other people's feelings? For other people's property? Values? Ideals and principles?
Tomorrow say hi to someone you don't know. Smile at someone you've never met before. Thank someone you don't have to, call someone you have not called in a long time, make a new friend, take a new chance and tell someone its all going to be just fine.
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2 comments:
gosh, i really really like what you've written here. it's definitely a lot to think about. personally i think we're too busy piling on tough skin armor. at least, thats what i see in myself. nice insight!
What you've written is certainly true, but do you think it is just part of a defensive mechanism we build up as we get older? How much easier was it to make that new friend when you were 8, then when you were 18? 28? As we get hurt by other people we deal with it by putting up walls for next time. I think it's almost instinctual at some point. It shelters us from further betrayals, disappointments and misunderstandings, at a cost of making our lives a lot less interesting and varied.
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