Connected?

It's funny; we're so connected as a society. It's the age of social media, and there's little we can't access from our screens.

What happened in 1690? Google search. Who's that girl hanging around your boyfriend? Facebook search. What's the latest song? Youtube search. 

There are Youtube tutorials for almost anything you could want to know how to do, there are people streaming live on Twitch. We can video chat with our friends wherever we are, we can send photos to one another and get responses in seconds. 

You know what there doesn't seem to be a tutorial on? How to be human. 

We barely look up from our phones to notice what's going on around us, and we'd rather group chat online than hang out in person. Memes and silly Gifs have replaced actual conversation. Our anxiety is sky-high when we have to be around other humans because it's becoming so unnatural for us to socialise. We order online, we use apps in restaurants to order or utilise self-service checkouts because we don't want to talk to a person, we isolate ourselves further and judge our interactions based on likes. We barely laugh anymore, we sharply exhale through our nose at a message and continue to blithely scroll through meaningless articles about celebrities and adverts designed to make us hate ourselves and our fellow humans more each day. We compare ourselves to other cyber zombies whose profiles state 'active' and yet haven't moved all day because they're busy thinking they're being social.

Is it a surprise to anyone that depression is on the rise? The human race is, at it's core, a highly sociable species and as such we need a steady stream of human interaction in order to survive. 
We like a friend's status but probably haven't seen them in months. We don't really ask if anyone is doing okay, or if they need a hug. We are so brainwashed by the cyber versions of ourselves we have created that we forget an actual human being is typing this. A real, live, person with thoughts and feelings and problems that most won't put on social media. A person in need of a face to face conversation rather than a few 'it will be fine' messages. 

I'm not saying social media can't be a good thing. I'm just saying sometimes it would be better if we could all switch off from the cyber world and tune back in to real life. Make more plans to see your friends and family in person; make real memories that you can look back on. I don't want to look back in 20 years and wish I had spend my youth doing something other than sat in my room pretending to have friends while they all sat in their rooms doing the same. 

There's so much to life beyond the screen. I think if we all took a little hiatus from it all, our mental health would be very grateful.