Thought Picnic: Rediscovering human things

Having time to be human

Sometimes I wonder if it is technology that has deprived us of age-old fashionable things like conversation, letter writing, note-taking and dare I say, laughter. The kind of camaraderie that is fostered by sitting at a table for dinner with friends or playing traditional games like cards, Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess or Cluedo.

We do not seem to have the time to engage constructively and enduringly anymore. We are busy doing things, ensconced in Social Media, excited by traffic and interacting, yet not forming relationships that could stand the test of time.

The absence of enriching elements of contact and facial expression is depriving us of unique human characteristics that cannot be conveyed in typing or video conferencing. Though, there are some of us who have mastered alternative arts of communication.

The delusion of abstraction

The lack of presence appears to obfuscate the necessity to respect and communicate on friendly terms. Rudeness and insult are easy to deploy when no affinity exists and a feeling of anonymity presents with the without human proximity.

The Internet appears to falsely confer invisibility on people who think they have the quality of abstraction that absolves them from any responsibility until it is necessary to find out who they are. The footprints on the Internet are set in rocks when knowledgeable sleuths are set on the path of tracking down the culprits.

Finding fun the traditional

Being a blogger of almost 13 years, it has sometimes been easy to type away and watch ideas and thoughts develop on the screen, but my last three blogs including this have first been written longhand, then typed out and edited for publication.

A few things are achieved by this, as I copiously take notes, my handwriting hopefully improves from an illegible scrawl to a very readable script and maybe a bit more time is spent thinking through my ideas and thoughts.

To this end, I bought a pocket notebook, A Victor Hugo, Les misérables Mini Lined Notebook (Embellished Manuscripts) [Amazon] one, I use a uni-ball Jetstream pen with a quick-drying ink and all I have to do is find a place to sit down and write.

Technology brings simplicity and ease, it has its place in the scheme of things, but it must not replace the essential pleasures in life, the ones of physical presence and human interaction, laughter with friends and seeing your own handwriting on paper. Let’s find some old-fashioned things to do without being so tethered to technology and its distractions.