Look Up

I have 422 friends,
yet I am lonely.

I speak to all of them
everyday, yet none of them

really know me.

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 realized
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, it's 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
the 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
our best bits,

but leave out the emotion.

We're at our most happy
with an 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 exaggerate,
crave adulation.

We pretend not to notice
the social isolation.

We put our words into order
until our lives are glistening.

We don't even know if
anyone is listening.

Being alone isn't the 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 stare at
your menu or 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.

It no longer satisfies to
engage with one another

and look into someone's eyes.

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

have watched us living like
robots and think it's the norm.

It's not very likely you'll
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 we would roam.

I'd wear holes in my trainers
and graze up my knees.

We'd build our own clubhouse
high 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's no skipping, no
hopscotch, no church,

and no steeple.

We're a generation of idiots,
smartphones, and dumb people.

So look up from your phone.

Shut down the display.

Take in your surroundings,
make the most of today.

Just one real
connection is 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.

That's when love overtook.

The time she'll 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'll
sell your computer

so you can buy a ring, for
the girl of your dreams

who is now the real thing.

The time you'll 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.

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 granddad

and makes you feel real old.

The time you take
in all you've made,

just by giving life attention.

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

by looking down
at 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's

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 is worse than regret.

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

this digital world, we
are 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.

So don't give into a 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.

Leave distractions behind.

Look up from your phone.

Shut down that display.

Stop watching this video.

Live life the real way.