Solace
I don’t know about you, but I find social media consumption these days to be exhausting. Every five seconds, there’s an interesting new top 21 list (“21 Shapes You Can Make With Ketchup”). A new video of a child prodigy doing something we ordinary adults can’t do (“Watch This 3-Year-Old Dance Ballet While Playing Her Own Violin Accompaniment”). A new slideshow of tips you never thought would be useful until now (“How To Cook Fried Rice Without Rice”).
The dizzying pace with which we are served these small bites of information on a daily basis is no wonder the majority of us seem to be developing attention-deficit disorders. Can you imagine going into a café to meet your friends without your laptop to while away the time? Heaven forbid you have to sit at your dentist’s reception area withoutyour tablet to play with while waiting. Let’s not even talk about the time you had to endure a 45-minute car ride without 3G on your phone.
We all know the many ways technology has helped us immensely. But perhaps we can also look into how we ourselves are becoming like these gadgets—mechanical, wired, needing to be constantly plugged in order to function properly. Social media is becoming today’s double-shot espresso, a day’s deprivation of which leaves many of us frantic and uneasy.
The funny thing is, when it hits us, we tend to look to the Internet—the very source of this frantic uneasiness, for solace. Instead of finding it, of course, we end up right back where we started, link-surfing and browsing and being busy but unproductive. And we wonder why we aren’t feeling better.
Finding solace can be as easy as a Google search, but it’s probably the last place we’d be able to do so. Here’s a search suggestion: to once in a while disconnect from the Internet and connect with our real life friends. To unplug our gadgets and plug into our community, see how we can contribute our work and play skills. To tune out from viral videos and tune in to our elders. When they talk about good old values and the good old days, they’re not just waxing nostalgic; it seems old school remains to be what’s truly cool.
Lace skater dress, Crazy Over Daisies. Ballet flats, Ziggy and Zooey. Pearl hairband, necklace and ring, SM Accessories. Shoulder bag, Nine West. “Kimchi” contact lenses, Japanese Candy. Manicure and eyelash perm, Nail it.