Random Thoughts: Electronic Evolution

I was born in 1984. I will be 25 tomorrow. My first e-mail account was with AOL when I was in middle school, when I also had my first pager. I used an original Apple computer to play Oregon Trail in 5th grade (I always died in less than a week). As a kindergartner, my friends and I read books & played outside – computers weren’t available commercially.

The evolution of electronic communication is simply dumbfounding. Our humans minds are in no way ready to process the immense amount of information we receive daily. Personally I find the manipulation of our emotions, or lack of emotions period, the most disturbing factor of all.

In less than one generation, the entire world has changed in ways we can’t even fathom yet. We should treat people online the same way we would if they were standing right in front of us. We can’t hide behind our monitors and expect success to come to us. We have to walk. We have to talk. We have to act.

Readers of my old blog will remember that I’ve openly written about my struggle with clinical depression and social anxiety before. I still battle these  issues daily, especially now that I am no longer on medication for them. Hiding behind my laptop is something I’m very familiar with, but things have to change. Though I can’t escape the reality of how business is done these days, no one can depend on the internet world to replace genuine face-to-face interactions.

Let us not discount the pleasure of sharing a pot of tea & hearty conversation together – in person.

[This post was inspired by Holly Becker's emotive interview on Simply Hue.]