looking up

thoughts: in a society powered by technology, many of us are continually glued to it. to phones, computers, apple products, what have you, new media devices are often the main focus of our daily lives. we have to be connected somehow. but why? i conducted a little experiment last week to see how non-digital communication works, and how much of our lives are spent missing the daily happenings.

why? i am a new media major, i love to be connected too. but it is a balance.yes, our society has changed to that technology is almost mandatory and necessary, but unplugging and communicating in our god-given form should also be important.

last thursday (i haven't posted until now because i wanted to process what happened), i spent an entire day with very minimal cell phone/internet use, and walked between classes with my head up. i didn't text anyone between classes and i walked normally without my phone in hand. instead of walking with my head down, paying little attention to people, i made it my goal to communicate with people, weather it be a simple hello, or a big smile. i wanted to see what would happen.

so i did that. i walked and smiled genuinely at people. not that forced "hey" when you walk by someone, but a real smile, trying to brighten my day. at first, not many people caught my eye, but as the day progressed and i continued, i got more and more people smiling back or saying hello to me. it became joyful, and i really connected with people as i lit up their days. it wasn't super surprising, but those smiles brightened my day as well.

i was in a great mood by the middle of the day and ended up sitting down next to a person i have never seen in my sociology class before. the kid that sat next to me briefly acknowledged me and we greeted eachother. when i asked how his day was, he started to tell me that his day was not going very well. i kept inquiring, and he told me how he was sad and lonely and wondered how to be outgoing and happy and connected like i was. i was able to cheer him up a bit and he really appreciated it. it was really great to really help someone out and influence them.

i left class feeling great about how i had tried to unplug and connect with people normally, and was really excited to share how my day had gone. when i had entered class, it was dark and rainy. when i left class, i looked up and noticed a beautiful rainbow in a glowing sky. it just goes to show that you can miss a lot by being bent over your cell phone or looking at your computer screen. you can get so much more out of life just by looking up and viewing the world around you.

why i chose this photo: after a whole day of looking up and straight ahead, i ended my school day by seeing this. it was a magnificent result of my test to look up.

question: what could you gain from your day by not texting people as you walk? by not talking on your cell phone?

inspiration: "there is beauty in everything. you just have to look around to notice it."