When it comes to communication the situation is counterintuitive.
The higher the tech, the lower the quality. That’s easy math. Write it out. You know it’s true.
We have these little portals in our pockets. We fetishize them as they erode us. Communication used to be a challenge of space and time. Now it’s too present, almost too immediate to be useful, and that part is our fault. We’ve gained portability, which we take for granted. We’ve gained instant access, which we don’t employ. We can call anyone anywhere any time, but do we? Do we even try? And when they call us, we pretend no one is calling when their names are on the screens. They know we’re pretending. Nobody is fooled by this theater of cruelty. Why are we cooperating with the draining of all heart’s blood from all human interaction?
We’ve got the answer to every question, but we don’t care anymore. We stopped asking the ones that matter anyway. Our memories are slipping away. We forgot all the phone numbers and we’ll soon forget the reality of the people connected to them.
But they go on! That stupid little red dot on your phone goes away as you’re on to the next on to the next on to the next until you are hollowed out enough to stop feeling. But they go on. They feel, and breathe, and love, and hurt.
We’ve lost empathy. We’ve lost tact. We’ve lost warmth. We’ve lost urgency. We’ve lost the simple pleasures of saying “good morning” and asking “how are you?” We’ve lost the soul-fertilizer of actually meaning those things. We’ve gained “viral content” and lost the healing power of storytelling. The list could go on for an indulgent amount of time and space but you’re already losing interest so let me make it bite-sized.
We lost a lot of what put the color into our lives and the blood into our experience. We stopped living our own stories and started being almost completely vicarious. We were so lucky to exist and be alive and aware and human and we stand to lose it all, forever.
We made a very big mistake. We have to go back. Our souls are almost given over to the artificial. We’re speeding up the end of being human. Think about it. And make the call you’re avoiding.
