Connections
I get the underground to work most days. The train connects me from my home to my office in minutes. We take high-speed connections for granted these days - it’s easy to forget that just a few centuries ago the same journey would have taken hours.
The passengers on my train are usually on their phones. You could say that they’re making connections too - travelling through the digital world and linking up to millions of others online.
We live in the age of high-speed connection. Why, then, are so many of us feeling disconnected?
When we get on a train, we usually know where we want to go. But when we enter the digital world, it’s often without an itinerary, we just have a vague craving for some kind of connection. We can spend hours searching for that place, never arriving, and when we emerge we can feel lost.
Maybe the problem is that we’re using technology to look for a kind of connection that it just can’t give us: one that lies within. Happiness, peace, that sense of having enough - we can’t travel to those places online. That journey is an inward one.
If you’ve got digital jet lag, try a contemplative activity like meditation, painting, writing or going for a walk in nature. These activities can provide a more true sense of having arrived. Technology can improve the speed of a connection but not the depth. So turn your attention inward. Make that connection with yourself.
