Alone and sorrounded

NPR is never missing from my drives

I'm listening to a professional talk about this subject as the "crisis to come", as the new thing we should all be thinking about. Humanity and its nuanced complexities has always had a seemingly undefeatable challenge to overcome and for all the advancements we have made in the medical field, the new ailments threatening our existence come not from a viral or genetic source but within the human mind.

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At first glance, it does not make sense

Its not like population has eroded in a significant way. We are not living miles away from each other and for the most part our interactions are in most cases just as casual, just as normal as they were decades ago. Establishing the differences, attempting to study the reasons as to why we may feel lonely, requires allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and that, that is something none of us like to do.

How can we claim to be alone while being surrounded by people? If I'm constantly having conversations with my spouse, with my neighbor, with my co-worker, How is that even a valid question?

The need to be vulnerable

I actually believe one of the many appeals of music is that its socially acceptable to surrender to it, to be vulnerable to a love song and to embrace its lyrics and message as our own. If you think about it, not being the author of something that describes your reality allows you to detach from the guilt that comes with acceptance. Along the same path, if one day we have moved on from those emotions, evolved into a different person to be more exact, the abandonment of an emotional identifier we did not create becomes a little bit easier.

This may all be speculation, because I could not possibly make the assertion that everyone feels music in the same way I do or that even uses it as an emotional band aid as I have. But if life has revealed a truth here or there, is that our similarities as sapiens are most obvious when it comes to emotions.

Why are we here?

I will steal a line from other thinkers and say that this new ailment is a direct reaction to the modern world and its excessive accessibility. Allow me to hurt the overly sensitive and propose the following negative outlook.

"Facebooks makes us believe we have many friends, Twitter makes us think we are all opinionated thinkers and Instagram that photography was our calling, but how much of that is true?"

I will admit I'm being a bit insensitive about the subject but I promise I'm not doing so to kick anyone that is down. The idea behind and my intention sharing this today is to evoke some reflection on the matter, so that we (because I will include myself) can attempt to remove some smoke from the room and stand on a somewhat solid ground of sensible truth.

Am I bashing Virtual Interactions?

Not in the slightest and I happen to believe that some of the people I've grown to love in my life have avatars attached to them. My point is really that in the apparent safety of virtual interactions, in the choice we make to show only the best, only the emotional face with makeup, we might be forgetting to share other important parts of our true self. The sad, the confused, the sometimes insecure person with different opinions and life experiences.

The emotional shield gets heavy and for all the apparent toughness ASCII characters can convey, once the laptop is closed and the computer is turned off, we must face the harshest critic we know, ourselves....

(signature by @bembelmaniac )