The slowness of digital life

Digital connections = Speed.
Instantaneous reactions,
Instantaneous gratification,
Instantaneous outrage
and so on.
Everything is instantaneous.

Or not?

Recently, while  my own phone was getting recharged and I had no option but to look around, I saw a person sitting there, with phone in hand. Waiting with anticipation for a like, a comment or some such. The digital slot machine was not throwing up interesting enough things for him. I went away and came back a while later.
The man was still there.
exactly there.
with exactly the same blank face and wide eyed anticipation.
And apparently the same screen.
 Nothing had changed. He was still. and he didn't know it.

We are all still. and we don't know it.

In reality, everything is not instantaneous. Our expectations though, are.
In search of dopamine hit, we keep refreshing, checking, rechecking... but real world refuses to move with the speed we want it to move. We prod at it with refreshes. We pull at it by pulling down at feeds. We push buttons to see 'what else'.
But our world remains adamantly stagnant, the more adamantly we force a refresh of it through our screens.

As such
little of consequence
really happens
through screens
in our lives. 

Digital life in reality is a terribly slow life.
We don't advance in life through screens. We stay still with screens. 

Comments

Gabriel M said…
Thank you for ssharing this

Popular posts from this blog

The anthem of the deluded

Why I repair my shoe

new pov