While we are asleep here, we are awake somewhere else
The fiction of our digital presence
I’m not sure how aware of the meaning Jorge Luis Borges was when writing:
“While we are asleep here, we are awake somewhere else,
and that thus every man is two men.”
Ficciones, 1962
I am pretty positive he couldn’t foresee how meaningful these words will sound in today’s technology prevailed world. For many years we have been dreaming about ‘time travel’ but I say we’re already there.
With all those modern devices at our hand, we can travel back and forth not only in time but also in space.
Discovery channel can take you lightyears back to the era of dinosaurs, Google Maps can teleport you to the 73rd floor of Burj Kalifa, thanks to Skype you can sit in Cambodia and dine with your boy/girl-friend who are freezing their butts off somewhere in Europe.
Amazing, huh?!
Technology empowers us to be anywhere anytime.
Or everywhere at all times, if you will.
How often do you go out with friends and there’s this several minute pause when everyone’s checking-in on Foursquare?
Or that moment of silence before eating when they start instagrammin’ their meal?
Or that ‘I hear you, keep talking’ episode when they just browse through their Facebook feed?
Devices create that insatiable desire to always be in the loop.
We are doubling and tripling ourselves in order to keep up with the world; in order to show others (but mostly to persuade ourselves) that we lead a meaningful life. Thus, we are rarely present. While we sit here, our digital selfs sit somewhere else. We travel back and forth in time and space.
But you know what… as exciting as traveling may be, it’s also exhausting.
So take a minute or two every day to disconnect.
Don’t read. Don’t talk. Especially, don’t browse.
Be present. If only for a moment.
