{"id":45,"date":"2015-07-08T18:08:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T18:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=45"},"modified":"2015-07-08T18:08:47","modified_gmt":"2015-07-08T18:08:47","slug":"keeping-it-real-in-an-increasingly-online-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2015\/07\/keeping-it-real-in-an-increasingly-online-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Keeping It Real in an Increasingly Online World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I hosted a flute and violin quartet practice at my house.\u00a0 The flutists \u2013 myself and my daughter \u2013 were joined my friend and her daughter \u2013 both violinists.\u00a0 It was a wonderful morning of making music.\u00a0 What strikes me most about mornings like this one, or when my husband and I host barbecues, or when we go to church on Sunday morning is that I feel so alive<\/em>.\u00a0 I spend so much of my time on a computer and interacting with others via email and text that when I get together with other human beings, it is almost exhilarating.<\/p>\n

Now I don\u2019t think that communicating electronically is necessarily a bad thing.\u00a0 I am introverted enough that too much human interaction is exhausting for me.\u00a0 I need breaks from people.\u00a0 So being able to balance face-to-face interaction with more distanced emails is my cup of tea.<\/p>\n

The problem, however, is that today’s online communication isn\u2019t always for the purpose of interaction<\/em>.\u00a0 For example, let\u2019s say that I send you a text or an email.\u00a0 That is my attempt to interact with you.\u00a0 It is basically like writing a letter.\u00a0 However, what if I post a picture on Facebook or send a tweet?\u00a0 Am I really trying to interact with anyone?\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 Then I am basically engaging in a one-sided conversation in which I am saying to the world \u201cLook at me!\u201d in the manner that small children say to their mothers when they want their attention.\u00a0 And then I seek validation in the form of \u201clikes\u201d or positive comments.<\/p>\n

These days we are completely enamored with one-sided communication, whether it be through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.\u00a0 In fact, we are so enamored that you can\u2019t be a writer, run a business or be a politician unless you have a \u201cpresence\u201d with one or all of them.\u00a0 And we waste a ton of time with it.\u00a0 And while we are wasting our time, we are missing out on real interaction<\/em>, like talking to our friends and families, or doing quality activities, like reading books or spending time quietly reflecting.<\/p>\n

So how do we \u201ckeep it real\u201d when our world now functions largely electronically?\u00a0 In my opinion, those of us above a certain age (think those of us who grew up with typewriters) should just say, \u201cScrew it.\u201d\u00a0 We can\u2019t change the world or the future of western civilization, but as long as we are breathing, we can live life on our terms.\u00a0 And our terms can be a complete rejection of those aspects of modern technology that don\u2019t improve our lives or our relationships.<\/p>\n

We can accept the fact that some things are better when said in person.\u00a0 My husband ends his texts to me with \u201cI love you,\u201d but it makes my heart go pitter patter when he tells me that face-to-face.\u00a0 We also can realize that just because we can access the news 24\/7, that doesn\u2019t mean that we in fact need to do so.\u00a0 And even though we can get every book on Kindle, that doesn\u2019t mean that we should forgo the pleasure of browsing at the library and bookstore.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, instead of forever looking at a screen at what other people<\/em> are doing, we need to do<\/em> things ourselves<\/em>.\u00a0 We should write, create art, make music, and be outside in nature.\u00a0 We should read (books!), think and come to our own conclusions about political issues, instead of being spoon fed opinions by our favorite news outlet.<\/p>\n

A final thought: one of my mother\u2019s friends, an 87-year-old gentleman, recently passed along to me a couple of pages of his autobiography.\u00a0 He wrote about his experiences growing up during the Depression.\u00a0 His writing wasn\u2019t in the form of a tweet.\u00a0 And believe it or not, it didn\u2019t include any selfies.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it was fascinating and far more interesting than anything I have seen on the Internet this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, I hosted a flute and violin quartet practice at my house.\u00a0 The flutists \u2013 myself and my daughter \u2013 were joined my friend and her daughter \u2013 both violinists.\u00a0 It was a wonderful morning of making music.\u00a0 What strikes me most about mornings like this one, or when my husband and I host barbecues,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping It Real in an Increasingly Online World - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping It Real in an Increasingly Online World - 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