Eyes scroll palms instead of sidewalk cracks and I wonder what would happen if we all spent a day foregoing text messaging and reminded each other that we exist through face contact and voice contact and in-person breaths.
We are forgetting how to connect without the use of electronic devices. We are moved by a human and the first question that often slips out of mouths has grown to: can we be facebook friends?
What happened to: Can we have a cup of coffee sometime and swap stories?
After so many open mics, poetry events and spaces where people share their art, I realize that we so often forget about the importance of in-person contact. By living our lives on computer screens, we are creating another version of ourselves, sometimes very different from the one that exists off-line.
What do we really know about each other. We can certainly learn a lot due to what one posts about themselves. Some feel the need to document their meals; some share links to global issues and world news; some post photographs of themselves taken by themselves; there are those that share poems or slices of their art; there are those that are in search of personal connections albeit through the computer screen.
I wonder what my words say about me.
Key words: gender, sexuality, identity, body, sad, human, love, words, poetry.
But what version of this is me?
What am I not giving away; what am I holding back?
I know I have typed this before: UNPLUG.
And I know I am saying this not just to you, but to me as well. Ask a stranger (or someone you’ve known the name of for awhile but couldn’t list more than three things about them) for coffee. Reconnect with someone you may be FACEBOOK FRIENDS with but rarely–if ever–speak to.
There was a time none of this existed. And by this, I mean, TECHNOLOGY.
How did we connect before computer screens and text messaging?
Unplug and find out the answer.
Aimee Herman 