Have you watched Netflix’s current movie Don’t Look Up? I had to because of DiCaprio’s skill, and there’s the ingenious Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep institution. In short, in my opinion, the film is a very good portrayal of humanity on the brink of its own absurdity. Private, business, collective, political, global. Very good transmission of the collective atmosphere of muted madness. The madness gets its place under the spotlight when faced with an unexpected disaster. Parodic depictions of hysterical personalities and interpersonal relationships in the film are not so far from the real situation. And hysteria is not lacking below.
Scroll race
In the world of consumerism and hundreds of speeds, it is a real rarity if we get to read the sentence to the end. Where the whole text. We scroll through the content, extract quotes, use contexts. In-flight, we compulsively share thoughts and quotes that resonate with us on our current, current, and current level of understanding.
We don’t linger too long on something because we swallow everything served. In doing so, we store, and perhaps take over, other people’s states and atmospheres. All this in a crazy hectic, driven by their own goals and desires born under – the question is whose influences. In any case, we expect a profit. Some in the form of likes, followers, sharing. And, some in the form of recognition and finance. Profit, therefore, is like 21st-century philosophy.
Virtual stage for life performance
Jung said a long time ago that we know too little about man, his psychology, and his mechanism. Thus, the only real danger in the world comes from man. In fact, the freedom of virtual space gives us the opportunity to express ourselves and to act. And, that’s great. At the same time, this space often serves to condemn and criticize each other. Which isn’t so great.
Cruelty took another stage. A stage for all sorts of fulfilled and truncated episodes of life. This cruelty seems to be present in all spheres where man is. Given all this freedom of virtual space and digitalization in a hurry, nausea often occurs.
Nausea that only the lucky ones recognize, so they understand it as the need for a digital detox. A sign that we are misusing content. Wrong means probably too much and without the right filters. Blurred perception certainly requires its own peace, silence, and detachment from outside noise. Does modern man know peace? Not all digital channels and communication networks are a problem in themselves. The problem is the unconscious and compulsive use of the same.
Life does not fit in reels
And so full of information, we shape our everyday life, but also our inner state. We build identity, real and virtual. At the end of the year, we are also trying to put together, if you will, a bit of a hysterical reel with a summary of our own lives over the past twelve months in a couple of fast-paced scenes. And it’s all wonderful if we talk about fond memories and moments.
However, it is less wonderful if we put together a collage to fill personal gaps by presenting something that is not. We measure, we monitor, we try to keep up with… I don’t know exactly what. Or who.
I often wonder what it’s like to grow up with all that. With so much pile of influence and information from all sides. On the other hand, the possibility of choosing both sources of motivation and demotivation has never been greater. And, therefore, an opportunity. It seems that again everything depends on our perception.
Lack of understanding
In all of this, interpersonal understanding seems to be waning. Very quickly, with instant condemnations, we classify each other into molds and categories. We take things, statements, and phenomena out of context and create absolute facts about others. And whoever has ever scratched beneath the surface knows that there is absolutely little in life.
Especially with complex beings like humans. More and more often, we practice this categorization in real life. We trade, consume, categorize. In hundredth gear. Just as it is rare to get to the end of a sentence, it is rare to come across someone with the capacity to listen.
Who listens soberly and is present to what you have to say. We consume each other half-heartedly and completely unconsciously. Trapped in our own psychodramas, we have no room for others. Relationships are like transactions. Content that we do not like, we need to dislike and eliminate at all bells with their magnificent criticism and disapproval. Behind the screen, we are much braver. And it’s as if it’s forgotten that what we don’t like, we don’t even have to follow.
Therefore, do not comment. We are slowly and comparatively copying all this into the real world. Maybe in the real world, follow and unfollow options are a bit slower. Purely because of the ubiquitous and widespread diagnosis of toxic addiction.
Connectivity, not distance
The point of digitization is better connectivity. However, as is often the case, the human product itself turns against itself. Instead of being more connected, we managed to distance ourselves from ourselves. Heads in the screens, we forget to look and see. Listen and hear. Feel and experience.
We do not give opportunity or time, but we are able to judge on the basis of an image, a caption, a borrowed quote. Lack of opportunity for time and space, lack of understanding are more than obvious.
It is alarming that in the sea of all these atmospheres and trends, we very easily become separated from our own visions, feelings, and states. As we do not give time and space to others, we do not give ourselves to our own processes. All this creates a hectic atmosphere of racing and life at full throttle. All of this contributes to half-hearted and vain relationships. And finally, the loss of all that is.
(Don’t) Look Up
Digital detox is needed by everyone whose head is unconscious and too often. It is needed by all who are full of conditions, feelings, and atmospheres that are not theirs. It is needed by everyone who has separated the consumed content from themselves. It is needed by everyone who runs through space and time. Maybe then it happens to everyone, and happy are those who recognize it. Both digital and detox are needed in non-virtual reality.
Away from food and drink after which we feel bad. Getting away from people after whom we feel bad. A departure from the pursuit of profit that ultimately does not make us happy. Away from the noise, we can’t hear anymore.
Away from influences that make us no longer know what we really want. A departure from voices that make us not hear our own. Moving away from spaces where we have no air. A move away from running in which we disappear, and which time does not catch up with. Stop a little & lookup. Of course, if you dare.
Mischievous Words by Marta 