Tag: internet

Connecting

Posted on by philipdodson
Copass/DNX/BetaHaus Lemnos Camp 2016 by Eric Van Den Broek
Copass/DNX/BetaHaus Lemnos Camp 2016 by Eric Van Den Broek

Connection doesn’t come from accepting friend requests, adding someone on LinkedIn, or following on Twitter. Not from email, texts, likes, shares, RTs.

It is not about being part of an online conversation or exchange.

Social media is a great tool to keep a connection going or to be a catalyst for new ones, we can reach out to people on the other side of the world.

Real and true connection comes from interacting with other humans in real life, where you share a thought, an idea, a story, a conversation, an exchange of something that means something to the other person. A connection is made and it is often hard to explain it in words, but there is a chemistry, something that is meaningful, there is a spark, a thing that is human.

It needs us to see the other person, speak with them, feel the other person’s body language, witness their expressions and emotions. To be deep rather that superficial.

It is not made by an exchange of data via the ether.

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.