being qaali

How much time do you think you spent online this year? I feel like I spent an obscene amount and I honestly can’t tell you where the year went. I’m convinced that we live in some version of the Truman Show and someone’s revved this up to 2.5x speed.

I read some time back that technology is making our minds process information faster which in turn makes us feel that time is moving faster. Our perception of time isn’t what it used to be pre-smartphones and I don’t know how I feel about that.

The leaps we have made in technology and its adoption during this pandemic is unbelievable. 10 years ago, no one would have believed that we would be living like this…the ghetto. I joke. Kinda. The future we couldn’t imagine is our current reality and with it comes innovation, which is what makes our world go round. However, the next thing up is the metaverse and web3 😩 I like technology and all the opportunities it offers however I don’t necessarily like how it is used a lot of the time.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the point at which we go from entertainment, learning etc to escapism and a disconnection from reality. The latter terrifies me because this new world was always bound to change our behaviour and in turn give us an opportunity to level up and build the future that we want but I think many of us are so stuck in a cycle of cynicism and hopelessness at the moment that we don’t even realise the nugget of hope that has appeared in our lives right now. The hope to become the architects of our own future with so many tools at our disposal.

I felt myself becoming uninspired and disillusioned with being online so I decided to deactivate Instagram for some months and it was so peaceful and quiet, I could think clearly without all the noise. I feel that more people online care about numbers and image, so where do we go for true community building, inspiring conversations and ideas and freedom? We are distracted – half thoughts are spoken, complex ideas turned into 10 second videos, we say we want to spend time with loved ones but never plan… The latter breaks my heart, our loved ones are aging and dying, we keep putting catch-ups on the back-burner, we are losing moments…when was the last time you held a loved one’s hands, sat cuddled up in conversation, laughed over breakfast, asked them how they really are?

Many of us have willingly given up our agency for surface-level enjoyment, we don’t know how to sit in the feelings that make us uncomfortable or really spend any time contemplating who we are and what this life means to us.

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

George Orwell, 1984

I hope you all schedule some away time from social media/screens in the near future and check in with yourself. You might surprise yourself and find that it is quite serene.