Look Up

I have four hundred and twenty-two friends

yet I'm lonely.

I speak to all of them every day, yet

none of them really know me.

LOOK UP

The problem I have sits
in the spaces between

looking into their eyes
or at a name on a screen.

I took a step back and opened my eyes

I looked around and realised

that this media we call social
is anything but.

When we open our computers

and it's our doors we shut.

All this technology we have
is just an illusion.

Community, companionship,
a sense of inclusion

yet when you step away
from this device of delusion,

you awaken to see a world of confusion.

A world where we're slaves
to technology we mastered

where information gets sold
by some rich greedy bastard.

A world of self-interest, self-image,
self-promotion

where we all share best bits
but leave out the emotion.

We're uttermost happy
within experience we share

but is it the same if no one is there?

Be there for your friends
and they'll be there, too.

But no one will be
if a group message will do.

We edit and exagerrate, crave adulation

We pretend not to notice
the social isolation.

We put words into order
until our lives are glistening.

We don't even know if anyone is listening.

Being alone isn't a problem,
let me just emphasize

if you read a book, paint a picture
or do some exercise,

you're being productive and present,

not reserved and recluse.

You're being awake and attentive

and putting your time to good use.

So when you're in public
and you start to feel alone,

put your hands behind your head,
step away from the phone.

You don't need to ??
or wipe your contact list.

just talk to one another.
Learn to coexist.

I can't stand to hear the silence
of a busy commuter train

where no one wants to talk
for the fear of looking insane.

We're becoming unsocial,

we're no longer satisfied
to engage with one another

and looking into someone's eyes.

We're surrounded by children,
who since they were born,

have watched us living like robots
and think it is norm.

It's not very likely you make
world's greatest dad

if you can't entertain a child
without using an iPad.

When I was a child I'd never be home.

Be out with my friends on our bikes ???

I had holes in my trainers
and graize up my knees

building our club house up in the trees.

Now the park's so quiet it gives me a chill.

See no children outside
and the swings hanging still.

There is no skipping, no hop-scotch,
no ? and no steeple.

We're generation of idiots:

Smartphones and dumb people.

So look up from your phone,
shut down display.

Take in your surroundings,
make the most of today.

Just one real connection -
- it's all it can take

to show you the difference
that being there can make.

Be there in the moment
that she gives you the look

that you remember forever
as when love overtook.

Time she first hold your hand,
or first kiss your lips,

the time you first disagree
but still love her to bits.

The time you don't have to tell hundreds
of what you've just done,

because you want to share this moment
with just this one.

The time you sell your computer
so you can buy a ring

for the girl of your dreams
who's now the real thing.

The time you want to start a family
and the moment when

you first hold your little girl
and get to fall in love again.

The time she keeps you up at night
and all you want is rest

and the time you wipe away the tears
as your baby flees the nest.

The time your baby girl returns
with a boy for you to hold

and the time he calls you grand-dad
and makes you feel real old.

The time you're taking all you've made
just by giving life attention

and how you're glad you didn't waste it

by looking down to some invention.

The time you hold your wife's hand,

sit down beside her bed,

You tell her that you love her,
lay a kiss upon her head.

She then whispers to you quietly
as her heart gives a final beat

that she is lucky she got stopped
by that lost boy in the street.

But none of these times ever happened.

You never had any of this.

When you're too busy looking down,

you don't see the chances you miss.

So look up from your phone,
shut down those displays.

We have a finite existence,
a set number of days.

Don't waste your life
getting caught in the net

as when the end comes,
nothing's worse than regret.

I'm guilty too of being part of this machine,

This digital world we're heard but not seen,

where we type as we talk
and we read as we chat,

where we spend hours together
without making eye contact.

Just don't give in to the life
where you follow the hype.

Give people your love.

Don't give them your like.

Disconnect from the need
to be heard and defined.

Go out into the world
and leave distractions behind.

Look up from your phone,
shut down that display.

Stop watching this video
and live life the real way.