So I clicked on Kimmie K’s instagram the other day, not because I intended to, but because one thing led to another and before I knew it I was scrolling through the photos of a woman who has over 8 million followers.Let me repeat that… EIGHTMILLION! That isn’t just a lot, that my friends, is a shit ton!
I won’t deny it, my first inclination was to be jealous of her fallowing and “like” count. I stared at the numbers and thought of all of the validation she must feel as she watches them tally up. Then I realized A) she probably doesn’t run the account and B) why does it matter?
While weaving in and out of traffic on the 5, grey clouds rolled into one another, folding into dismal peaks. I found myself lost in thought over Kims insta-feed as I pressed play on a TedTalk about human interaction and how technology changes our connection.
The first woman spoke of her involvement with the advancement of life like robotics and how, the more advanced they became the more depressed she felt. Why you may ask… well, because she believed that when people stop interacting with each other (for emotional and physical needs) and start interacting with technology they will loose something of their humanity.
For some reason this made my heart hurt. At first I wasn’t sure why, I don’t own a robot, no one I know ones a robot (maybe a closeted Furby fan), so why did this make me sad? Perhaps it is because while at a cinco de mayo party the other evening, in the midst of all the festivities, I would watch people through the night become briefly lost in the land of their phones (I was no exception, after all a girls gotta instagram if she wants to catch up with Kimmie K). I realize it is something that has become so natural that most of us don’t even think twice about it’s happenings, but in it’s becoming second nature has it taken away from our life? Our REAL life?
A friend told me of this idea and I want to try it next time I have a gathering or go out with friends. If you are at a restaurant place all of the cell phones in the center of the table, the first person to touch their phone during dinner has to pay, if you all wait until the bill comes you only have to pay for yourself (brilliant right!?). If you have a gathering at home, have everyone place their phones in a bowl by the door, they are allowed to take them out for a photo op here and there during the evening, but it must go back in the bowl immediately after.
Finding ways to separate yourself from the overwhelming amount of technology isn’t easy these days, especially if you don’t have the time, money, and luxury of going to a deserted island or a cabin high in the mountains somewhere. It’s the little things, the small victories.
I realize the iPhone is one of the best inventions ever made, but I would like to believe I could (hypothetically) live without it… Thankfully that is not the case.
How do you find connection to real people and release from technology? Or better yet, do you think it’s necessary?
xx
