On Being Connected

The fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

With the announced release of Apple's Iphone 6 and its sister smartwatch, I have come to two conclusions.
We are less connected than ever.
We are morphing into a nation of observers as opposed to a country of participants.
I am not anti technology. In fact, in my quixotic quest for achieving personal nirvana in effieciency and organization, I buy gadgets, chargers and cases. (Thank you Warren Zevon). I own, and use, an Iphone, an ipad, an iPad mini, a dell laptop and a kindle. I download apps and attempt to use the cloud for everything. Disclaimer complete.
I am saddened that we don't swim as often with our children, we don't listen to street musicians, we don't pet our dogs as much.
Instead, we take pictures of our children swimming and our dogs running.. We take videos of stret musicians performing. We then upload and "share the experience" with the masses both known, and unknown.
I recently tried to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. I'm tall, but all i saw were the backs of human hands holding iphones and snapping away. I turned around and had the opportunity of seeing Veronese's Wedding at Cana mano a mano. No iphones. Just me and some really interesting and very large art.
Missing the beauty of the Mona Lisa, missing swimming and just recording the event is not living.
This is not participating.
This is observing.
We have become reporters, not achievers.
Our children, our dogs and our musicians would rather we played and enjoyed.
I'm going to make an effort to experience life and not observe and record it.
I'm going to try to connect more in life and less with bluetooth.
I will still use technology. I will buy Apple products and supprt Windows-based laptops.
After all, the fruit in the garden may have been an apple, but I wrote this blog on an iPad mini (see below)

-Eddie A.


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