Alone

I thought long about what to write. I felt what I wrote today had to be of a high standard because of a comment on my last post left by someone who I have never met (I think), and who I don't know. Yet they commented because something in my post compelled them to. I like to think it was my beautifully crafted paragraphs, each sentence a work of art in its own right. I am slightly more realistic than this though. 
Somewhat ironically though, this gave me the inspiration for today's post. 


We are, as humans, quite alone. 


In the twenty-first century, we have the internet, mobile phones, land lines, social networking sites, blogs, all creating a 'communication network' that means we can interact with each other, post our very souls up for the whole world to see should we so choose it. Yet in some ways, we have never been more isolated. 
Look around you the next time you are on public transport. Everybody is tucked away in their own little world, a barrier around them, constructed from the music they plug their ears up with, the phones they hold in front of their faces so nobody would dare interrupt them, even the books they bury their noses in (although I'm inclined to say books are the least "go away" of all of these).
I think in many respects, technology has exacerbated this phenomenon of shutting us off. We may be able to communicate with someone (or many people) over a chat medium, or put up every detail of our lives on facebook, but because of that lack of person to person contact, these tools of 'communication' simply become means to distance ourselves from the rest of humanity. We are more closed off than ever. 




I think perhaps this is because, at some core level, we are afraid of each other. Afraid of what rejection others might level at us. I think the perfect example of this was today, when I was at a French revision course (which is actually the wrong course that school enrolled us in). The other three girls in my class were also there, along with eight other students. Everybody stuck tightly to whom they knew, reluctant to attempt to enter into a conversation with strangers. And it struck me that the reason why is because we were all afraid of being rejected, being told that we were not 'up to scratch'. 

I often find it interesting to see that so few people smile at each other. I try to make it a point that if I catch the eye of a stranger, I smile at them. Costs me nothing, and I often get a smile in return, which makes me feel happy. 


This was what surprised (and delighted) me most about the comment left by this stranger yesterday. There was no need for him to write to tell me he had read my blog (and I hope appreciated it), yet he did. It was so unexpected.


I suppose what I'm trying to say is that reaching out every now and again to a stranger, to say something, to even simply smile at them. Because there's something horribly lonely about our society today, something sterile. 


Now I'm going to watch a french film about someone pretending to be gay in order to keep his job.