Reconnecting with real life in a digital world

Technology is a wonderful thing, but for every gap it closes between continents, countries and human beings, it opens up others between people.

We’ve never been more connected as a species – yet never more disconnected from each other at the same time.

It’s interesting to see that young people – those weaned on screens – are starting to kick back against the way the digital universe has enveloped us and taken over our lives.

“We are the technology generation, but we’re tired of it. We want to reconnect with the real world,” said Bianca Bolum, a 25-year-old jeweller.

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She and others queued to buy tickets to an “irl” (in real life) event in the city where for two hours, they would be free of the flashing, glowing screen and beeps of their mobile.

They chatted, they read, they did crafts. They acted like human beings used to before they became addicted to screens and information.

Does this mean society’s pendulum is about to swing back towards a more analogue, real, life? Probably not for more than a small minority, at least in the short term. But this may be a glimpse of hope for the future.

Face-to-face encounters, feel and touch are what makes as human.

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