The Incomplete Ramblings of an Insomniac

Observer

I am an observer of people. I love it and always have. To sit in a public place and just watch people go about their daily lives is a favorite past time. People are so self absorbed most of the time, they hardly notice me. But I see them. Walking to and from, checking their social status based on how many likes, comments, and retweets they get, their interactions with others including facial expression, tone, body language. It is an amazing look into the health of society. With the advancements of technology, a persons attention span is a miraculous 12 seconds, which implies I have already lost the interest of most people reading this. I've kept quiet for a while on all platforms, mainly to come back to myself and be more in tune with real life. It is a practice I use regularly. It calms me in ways medication cannot. I choose to be present in my life and not be dragged around in life by an invisible leash that I keep in my pocket. We as people are starving for personal connection. We are a sociable species. We grow in ways only human connection can achieve. Too much of our lives are ruled by technology. Smart cars, fridges that have WiFi, speakers that can search the internet for you when the smallest question enters our thought process are only a few of the hindrances we have made for ourselves to enjoy our world more, yet are the very things hurting us in the end. I live in this world and I believe it is what is killing us. I am a future step-mother to two wonderful girls who have had the luck to have a private school education, yet cannot spell penguin, not know how to cook for themselves, do daily cleaning chores, or entertain themselves past the 12 second attention span. We are letting technology raise our children and it is showing with lower test scores and the IQ of the world dropping steadily over the past thirty years. People with different opinions other than the mainstream are deemed as different, weird, crazy even. Have you ever sat back and wondered why mental illnesses, drop out rates, and raising violence are actually happening? There are so many studies wondering why these thing are happening so frequently. But with stricter laws prohibiting spanking children, they are not learning what real consequences are. People are too worried about how they can get cool and famous by not doing anything and only following trends and fads until their 12 seconds expire and a new fad sweeps the country. Does anyone know the things the government does when society is distracted? The ALS Ice bucket challenge, fidget spinners, Tik toks, and any other mindless fad that pops up and is almost instantly forgotten. I recommend you look into it. You would be surprised if you look up from your phones every once in a while.