The other night I was sitting in bed writing, in an actual book, with an actual pen, no phone or computer in sight. Sounds crazy right? In my musings I wrote ‘The more we connect through technology, the more we disconnect from humanity.” I do believe there is a lot of truth in this. As technology gets more advanced (I mean we do have the Apple iWatch now), the more we are going to connect through a device rather than with each other.
I’m sure you’ve all seen these scenarios: A table at a restaurant with a bunch of people who all have their heads down over their phones. They are not interacting with each other, they are interacting with their devices. How about this one: you are walking down the street and you see someone, again head down looking at their device, and they are so enthralled that were you not paying attention they would have ran right into you? This is happening more and more, and I think that it’s making us less human.
I’m not saying throw your smartphone away and unplug your computer for life, what I’m suggesting is a balance. I read an article today about a woman who put her phone away whenever she was around any other person for a week. She only took it out when she was alone. This was a policy a co-worker of hers had and she decided to adopt it to see what would happen. You can read the article at the link given, but basically people interacted with her more because her nose wasn’t in her phone; they smiled more, asked more questions, and she was happier for it.
There are a lot of great things about technology: I can keep up with friends through social media that I don’t really hang out with, but still care about. I can video chat with my daughter when she is traveling. I can connect to new people through an online service and discover new things and make new friends. I can write a blog and reach people and hopefully give them a smile. I just believe it’s important to connect in real life as well, because technology will never be able to replace a hug, and hugs are important.
My challenge to you: For one day do not use any mobile device when you are around people, only when you are alone and see if it makes a difference. If you live through the day, try it again the next day and so on. I would love to hear how it goes, so leave me a comment, and I will write about your experiments in another post.
Until next time…make some real connections.
Recipe of the Day: Vege Pasta
Ingredients for Sauce:
-12 Cloves of Garlic
-1 Red Bell Pepper
-1 Onion
-1 small head of cauliflower (cut up in flowerettes)
-1 large yellow squash
-1/4 cup of olive oil
-1 TBS salt
-2 TSP of Lemon Pepper
-1 TSP of dried oregano
-1 TSP of dried basil
>Preheat oven to 375
>Chop all vegetables into large pieces and put in a large bowl
>Include Olive Oil, Salt, Lemon Pepper, Oregano, Basil in the bowl with veges and coat well.
>On a cookies sheet or shallow pan pour the veges out and make sure they are flat and separated and cook for 1 hour in the oven
>When veges are done put into a food processor and puree while streaming in 1/2 cup of olive oil until the sauce is smooth
>Transfer sauce into a saucepan and add:
-2 TBS Butter
-1/2 TSP of pepper flakes
-2 TSP of salt
-2 TSP of Lemon Pepper
-2 TSP of Oregano
(taste after it cooks on low for 10 minutes, and adjust seasoning to your liking)
>While sauce cooks on low, make your pasta
>When pasta is done mix with sauce and sprinkle shaved Parmesan on top
And this is what you get:
In the Pot
On the Plate
