Tag: digital

Beyond digital

Posted on by philipdodson

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For maybe two decades or less, the human race has marvelled, become addicted to, all consumed by, worshipped a digital virtual world.
We are and will realise that a digital world can never replace the true magic of the real thing, a real life, in the moment, with real people.

Sure an ebook is more efficient, but feeling the pages of a real book is something hard to replace. Getting everything delivered in an instant means we consume more and appreciate nothing. Going shopping in real shops, touching real things, socialising, spending time with our families, even the odd disagreement is much more of an experience than clicking ‘buy’ on Amazon.

Meeting up with and talking to a few real friends has been lost into a vortex of massive virtual ‘friendships’ via the 2 inches by 4 inches glass touch screen of our handheld device of disconnection from humanity and loneliness.

We can fill our days with more, but sadly do and achieve less of any real meaningfulness.

We have sacrificed real experiences and replaced them with soulless efficiency, mass consumption, instant everything and attention to nothing.

We miss boredom, it was a time to reflect, daydream, appreciate more the moments of excitement. We had to imagine more, we had to create more, now it can all be done for us. Where is the magic and pleasure in easy?

The human race will move on from the digital world, when? who knows? But it will happen and perhaps sooner than we realise.

What will we do beyond digital?

Craft

Posted on by philipdodson

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100’s of years ago before the mechanisation that the industrialised world brought to the human race, we were involved in work, art, music, or writing that involved craft.

We wrote letters with a quill dipped in ink on a scroll. We spent our time crafting beautiful letters.

We shaped wood into amazing things, we hammered iron into all manner of items, we made and created things with our hands, often made with joy and intimate knowledge and skill of how to.

Whatever we did it mainly involved concentration and often deep work with passion and feeling. It had a meaning.

In our world of email, social media, and instant gratification, we are desperately short of doing anything of meaning, substance and passion.

In order to fulfil ourselves and gain meaning to our existence, we need to add craft to whatever we are doing.

That requires attention and the removal of distraction. It needs us to learn focus and forget the shallow pings of the insubstantial world we have created.

Craft something remarkable and enjoy every moment.

There is a brilliant quote ‘we who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals’. We must envision something deeper rather than simply be adding yet another piece of digital content to the vast digital dustbin of much of the internet.

There is more.