One of the best things we can do is find silence.
Find the silence. Technology crowds out space for reflection.
I won’t make this one of those annoying ‘we hate technology it’s ruining everything’ rants because they aren’t entirely true and they’re getting old.
However, I WILL reflect about reflection!
So much of our conversation as the young adults of a new generation – generation Z – is often so meaningless and pointless. Yes, small talk is important, but if it is a constant babble of look at the new girl, or who’s got the hots for who, or the new car that came out, then where is the time for real talk on the world, on injustice and on conflicts and issues around the globe.
We need to take the time to put our phones and devices down for a while. Have you wondered why people have become so uncomfortable with silence? It’s because we’ve become used to a constant flow of information, updates and pictures – silence has become deafening, even abnormal. The irony as we’ve become so called more ‘connected’ with what’s going on, we have simultaneously lost connection with our mind, our hearts and what our convictions truly are. Silence is good. Silence means we can reflect.
We need to take the time to consider what’s going on in the world. Looking on the island that is Australia there are refugees at our borders seeking help, massive health gaps still existing within our Indigenous population and all the while costs are rising while the economy faces a little-known but growing economic crisis.
Looking beyond our borders, massive issues face us as a species; from the threat of terrorism and USA’s involvement in the Middle East to the questionable policies of multiple regimes in Europe and Asia.
If someone asked you for your opinion on any of these large scale matters would you be able to give your point of view clearly and coming from a place of consideration and reflection? We need to begin taking our head out of the petty matters of the now and taking a stand on things which matter to us. It’s not enough to answer with, “I don’t know” or worse still “I don’t care”. We for the first time have all the information we want at our fingertips. With a click of a button, we can become acquainted with nearly all the going on’s in the world. As a generation, we should take note and be able to provide an answer for where we stand on the decisions of governments around the world and on the major issues facing countries around the globe.
You see what I did there? I referred to issues generally – globe, countries, world – they’re such abstract concepts. However when it comes down to it, every decision and every conflict affects someone; it affects the lives, happiness and future of a human being. It’s nearly impossible to imagine what it would be like to live in a country where being of a certain religion means the threat of death, where you literally have no country and need to seek refuge anywhere but where you once called home or when you have lost a brother or a sister to the ‘collateral’ damage of a bomb in a conflict that isn’t yours, that was never yours.
Yet this is the daily reality for millions.
We need to think of conflicts at the level of the human being if we are ever to find a way to address them.
Turn off your device now and sit back for five minutes and think. Form an opinion. And most importantly don’t be shy to talk about your views and to bring up these kinds of things in conversation.
But to get there we first need to find the silence to reflect and to find out where we stand on matters which are meaningful and relevant.
#findthesilence
#usetechforgood
Continually Convicted 