Are we losing ourselves | forgetting how to be human
Do you remember the way that things used to be? Do you remember a time when you used to walk places or ride your bike? Do you remember a time when you needed to memorize someone's phone number? Yeah...me too.
Yesterday, Stacie D (@freedomtowrite) and I were watching a show that reminded me of the times that we are currently living in. Someone was hired to house sit for someone, but there were also nanny cams involved. This meant that the house owner trusted the person enough to do the task...but not enough to be in their home unsupervised.
We are creating situations where people can't even grow as people. We are struggling to develop what may be the most important thing....Character. We struggle with integrity, because everything is videoed so we are forced into it instead of wanting it. We struggle with trusting others, because we can always see what other people are doing and somehow that makes us feel in control but uneasy.
We are living in a time in history that we have more technology than has ever existed (as far as we know). We hear all of the time that all of this advancement is just that...advancement, but I don't think that we are advancing. I believe that we are losing ourselves. I believe that we are losing the very thing that God designed us to be.
We are living in a time when we can google any question we have, but we can't actually store it in our long term memory. On average, people have about a 15 minute attention span. We don't walk anywhere..crap...we hardly move around if we don't have to. There is more processed food available for consumption today, but yet we are all more ill than we can remember our older family members ever being.
I believe that we were made to be. That would mean that we were made to exist and have experiences. We have the tools within us to do anything we want, and sometimes it just takes time to master it.
Our bodies are the most advanced piece of technology on the planet, but we get excited over the newest smartphone. Our bodies take a piece of food and tear it apart and then turn it into a human...but that isn't as cool as a computer.
Our bodies are built to heal when it is injured. It is made to store information in the short term or the long term. It was made to connect with other people. To look someone in the eyes when you talk, and actually connect.
Maybe this is me having that 1980's Christmas kind of nostalgia where everything just seemed more amazing. Maybe the time before technology was the best time in human history. In the future they are going to look back at us and wonder how we are all even alive. I wonder that myself. We are so far from what we could be, and we are letting all of our natural function be replaced by technology...because for some reason we think that easier is better.
I'm not sure it is.
Be well
~The Yeti
https://steemit.com/@freedompoint
https://twitter.com/the_alpha_yeti
https://www.instagram.com/thealphayeti/
▶️ DTube
▶️ YouTube
Well, first we need to know what a human is before we can be that thing.
And to be fair, people are much more fragile than the where three decades ago. Most people do not have emergency funds. If something breaks, they cannot handle it. We also have a lot more easily breakable stuff.
You know, that good old dining room table that i used to pound leather on... well, now there is this sheik glass table. The previous table wouldn't care if you put another scratch in it. The new table couldn't survive a scratch.
But it isn't just this, we don't have the constraints any more.
We made friends with the local kids or not at all. There was no other choice.
Today, most intellectual friends are on-line, and not in the real world at all.
Fortunately, in the future, we are going to start migrating back to our clans, our tribes our families (large multi-generational group that may or may not be blood related)
Yes! I love the idea of the big old wooden table. I also agree with the clans and tribes. I think that is real, and will be out of necessity.
It’s a great time to be alive! Never in the history of humanity has it been easier to be successful. Humans have gotten so weak and degraded they are empty shells. 50/500 rule in ecology. A population under 50 creates a genetic bottleneck and over 500 creates a genetic drift disallowing adaptability. This is what we are seeing today. Too much population diversity. This is scientific law not a theory. Anyways I am now inspired to write a post about this. Thanks always for a great perspective.
Wow! That is amazing for sure. I did not think about that sort of aspect to this. The idea of too much population diversity is never talked about. People love diversity haha. Be well
Cameras and surveillance sure have added to the distrust factor in relationship. I do think that they are necessary and are here to stay. Yes, privacy and un-supervised trust is erroded, but I think this is necessary in some situations.
I do like your opinion though. I think it is important to reevaluate these issues and take a step back from technology at times.
I suppose the topic of surveillance is a pretty deep one haha. Thank you for jumping in here. Have a great day!
Being human has never really been one thing - every generation looks back and judges the generation previously or the one before that or the one before that...We can only ever be products of our environment. People a thousand years from now at our exponential rate of technological expansion will think we were total savages.
Now as for what defines us as "Human" is a matter of opinion - personally I've always viewed being "Human" as empathy - as thinking and caring about others instead of merely yourself. It's difficult to say with the media as over-saturated as it is whether or not we care less or more, but I certainly meet loads of decent people in the real world.
I don't think we're really losing ourselves. I think doom and gloom rises to the top on the internet especially and we hear loads of bad things going on in the world but the world is still full of good people who are worth enduring the bad for, people who are worth caring about despite all the evil.
And as long as we ourselves remember we won't lose ourselves.
I think that is a great response!! I know that we should be focused on not losing ourselves, but the collective is what is losing. We can sit back and remember to take care of ourselves and those around us, and still get lumped into the bigger picture. Be well