I’m not talking about material things. They come and go. I’m talking about the things that matter most: love, peace, happiness, and acceptance.
At times when I think about stories to share here I think about things that happened to me in my past. I used to make the mistake of living in my past, but now I only go back to see if my experiences can help others. Now I wonder if all we have gained in the last 50 years has been worth it.
This isn’t an argument that progress is bad. This is an argument that progress is good, but it also comes along with undesirable things as well. We gloss over the undesirable things in life, but we are strongly affected by them. Let’s talk about an example.
For example, when I was young I made lots of mistakes. I didn’t have the Internet or smartphones to capture them as easily as they do now. Since the rise of cheap recording devices in the 90s we have increasingly used them negatively towards others. Instead of inspiring others with the natural beauty in the world, we record the ugly fights and then share them on social media. Instead of things that bring people joy like special moments, we focus on painful and embarrassing moments to get views.
We need to consider how the tools we are using are hurting people as well as helping them. I love technology and would never want to have less investment in science and technology. However, I think as a society we haven’t understood how we are hurting ourselves by using it. I shared in an earlier article how using social media hurts us. Now many technologies can hurt us like AI and others, and we feel scared that the tools we made to help make our lives easier may be the same tools that destroy us.
If your life isn’t getting better, then ask yourself why are you doing what you are doing. It’s never too late to change. What makes you happy can also make others around you happier as well.