It wasn't always this way...

Perspective from the past can help loosen modernity's grip on your life.

A few things I find useful to remember:

Unless you told them, or they were with you, people didn’t know where you were.

Unless you were in your home, or the office if you worked in one, or waiting in a phone booth, you were not expected to answer calls.

Unless enough time had passed for the letter to arrive, you were not expected to respond to a message.

Unless you had enough time to find the right book, or the right person, you were not expected to have the answer.

Once home, at night, your distractions were few, & work, if you did have to bring it home, was between you & paper.

In between these moments of expectation resided...space...Moments of repose. The chance to let your guard down. You could sit quietly with your own thoughts, which is not the same as your thoughts controlling you, as if your mind holds the strings and you are the puppet. There was a time for work, a time for correspondence, & a time for all of that to shut off.

With more space in between the expectations, there wasn’t this flittering we now have. This zzt zzt. The mind that reads a sentence. Then stops. Interrupted by thought. Picks up the phone. Sends a message. Phone down. Back to book. Where was I? Find the line. Read it again. Already read this. Read next line. Zzt zzt. Have to order. Book down. Phone. Item in cart. Where was I?

We are being re-created. This new way of being, in the span of humanity, is beyond new; it is quick as a blink brand new. It is unprecedented. It’s like being dropped into an ice bath & told to sweat. It is the opposite of what your body knows to do. Nerves are fraying. Systems shutting down.

Once people had longevity of presence. What we used to call immersion, which is the opposite of surface. We live on the surface now, increasingly unable to sink down past the noise. Soon, we won’t even remember that once there was immersion, the full & complete absorption into the act you are performing, and therefore into the collective and accumulating moments of your life. We will be something new and not improved. A dwarf hybrid —half human, half tech, small enough to fit in the palm of someone’s hand.