As a blogger, it’s impossible not to keep yourself next to the world at large where all thing are so conveniently served to you as long as you have the moolah for it. And on one hand, you have to keep your neck up and scanning the terrain for new things (developments, or what-have-you) just so you have something to talk about. So is it possible for someone who’s so used to the kind of lifestyle that he/she surrounds him/herself with by keeping away from it?

Imagine a life without Internet, TV, Cellular Phone, Newspaper, Mp3 players, the like.

Unimaginable?

I’m sure some of you have often wondered what it was like for those who lived in a time where these things were not around. They went through the trouble of writing laborous and (what arguably were) more emphatic letters. Had more time arranging visits in other people’s homes, and more leisure hours spent for reading a good book. Music is witnessed in performance rather than what the case is these days - isolated from the artist in question. I mean, how many people these days go out of their way to feel the honor of getting to hear a band live and take home CD’s or tapes as souveniers? Not the other way around. Wow, it’s a rich life back then. Technology and its accessibility has minimized the potential for people to appreciate art in its true form, and the point I’m making really is how all of this in the end, takes us further away from the touchstone of human relationship: genuine connection.

In the get-go, you realize that this so-called genuine connection doesn’t happen as regularly as your 8:00 PM sitcom. Can we honestly say that we are alive inside if our experience of humanity is channeled through a tube that re-enacts/simulates images as opposed to seeing it with our own eyes? I’d think not. Can we equivocate a dose of “living” as coming face to face with technology and its “developments”, day-in, day-out? Does this enhance genuine connection or does this complicate them? What happened to intuitive conversations and body language? Does the IM window suffice the warmth of an embrace and the quivering of the lips that emerges in a soft kiss?

The contemporary life ought to be a synthesis of the kind of human experience I’m talking about and the attempt to enhance it via technology. Because if our goals are centered on pleasuring ourselves and quickening the process, we fail to see the precision of beauty unfolding between us, sans all these contraptions that we have so in/conveniently equipped ourselves with. If technology is used only as a supplementary tool to enhance relationships and NOT as the be-all-and-end-all of creating it, then clearly we’ve got a more workable theme in the chaos of our time. In application, try leaving your phone and computer alone for a day or two and take a vacation from it all. Make friends. Get a massage. See a band.

Live.