Look up…live life the real way
“This media we call social, is anything but…”
The words are from the spoken word video “Look Up” written by Gary Turk. I would encourage everyone to take 4 minutes and 58 seconds out of their life to watch “Look Up”.
Ironically to watch the video you will be looking down, however I hope that it will encourage you this week to “Look Up”.
The screens are so accessible that we forget the skills we have, on the radio last week they were encouraging schools to teach children map reading. As anyone knows “Mr Sat Nav” is not the most reliable, Peter Kay’s new show “Car Share” aptly demonstrated this.
From looking at screens we may be losing skills but most importantly we may miss life. The subtly of human behaviour, the look, the smile or the hesitation in the voice. From a personal perspective I met my husband in 1990 solely based on a “Look” no dialogue exchanged between us but luckily for me he was bold enough to approach based on a “Look”.
If you are parent you will be terrified by the line “If you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad – it is not very likely that you will make the greatest dad”. We have to work with the technology although not a part of our childhood we have to understand it with them. We need to talk about what they see and be educated by them, a role reversal but hopefully will lead to a healthy connection with screens.
Technology is an illusion of community and companionship we boast and share great things about ourselves with often no responses from others – is this sharing? Community is about congregating together, many generations sharing. A lot of my friends have used a postal vote for the General Election. Having lived in the same village for 10 years I enjoy the ritual of the village hall. Young and old appear and the old-fashioned feel of it and the sense of social responsibility coming together. My children have asked to come with me on Thursday as they want to see the theatre and in some small way be a part of what is to come. Technology surely cannot steal something so quintessentially British?
I work for companies who let their teams sit with headphones on their heads whilst engaging just with a screen. Office banter used to be the lifeblood and the culture you created.
We have a finite existence in the words of Gary Turk – “Look Up” this week and let us know what you see.
