How Impersonal Can You Get?

I scratch my head sometimes trying to figure out the human species.  We have all these communication forms at our fingertips and yet, it seems like we don't know how to communicate.

We are so busy with our lives, that we don't stop to take a moment and say "hello" or "how are you doing" or some other simple statement.  We just go on and on about how busy we are and how we've got a zillion things to do and how we just don't have time to keep up with any of our friends.  We apologize ad nausea until our repeated apologies sound like a broken record.

Yet, the minute the latest political story of the day comes out, we are on it so hard.  We're tweeting away, we're texting our friends, or we're liking it on Facebook.  It becomes our sole focus and then consumes us, but yet, we are too busy for others in our lives.

Anything more than a simple text or tweet or Facebook like seems to be quite complicated for most humans these days.  I mean, why engage and truly let someone know they matter in your life, when you can just click a little heart or click a like.  How impersonal can you get?  Yes, I know these platforms draw you in to make it so easy to do, but it is the lowest form of communication that you can do.

I see various people that I've communicated with on a regular basis ignore me almost since I'm no longer real active on Facebook.  Without Facebook, it is like you don't exist.  If you don't text people, it is like you don't exist.  Sorry, but how in the world did we ever manage up to this point in time without Facebook, Text Message, and Twitter?  I'm being sarcastic there of course.

If my memory serves me correctly, there is a song that Tracy Lawrence sings (might have the wrong country music artist) but it is about if everyone had a front porch - in other words - people got to know one another and communicate with one another.  It is a thing of the past that I miss.  Yet, in those days, we only saw and heard what we wanted to see as well.  It wasn't always a good thing as we want to remember.

We've become so impersonal with our communication that we barely know one another.  We're more interested in screaming at one another through social media, than we are seeing each other through eyes of love, compassion, and understanding.  We're more interested in screaming our beliefs and opinions at one another than we are just communicating with one another.  We're more interested in hating one another than truly loving each other.

If we don't watch out, we will wake up one of these days and wonder who these other two-legged creatures are around us.  It takes communication.  It takes not being too busy for others.  It takes really making a personal effort by each one of us to make an attempt to see those around us in our life as if they matter.

Are we too busy for others?  Unfortunately, the rhetorical question deserves an answer of YES.  It is up to each one of us to change that.  It isn't the fault of anyone else out there in the world.  Either you're too busy for others in your life or you make time for them.  It is that plain and simple.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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