I don’t know why, but it seems like as a society people are becoming emotionally unavailable.
Part of it stems from the way we communicate. I don’t like texts and I don’t do them. I talk to people or video them with Facetime/Zoom. I don’t want to see words, I want to see a face.
I think a consequence of people not seeing who they are talking to is one of many steps people take to emotionally distance themselves from others and themself. I have seen that many people can’t handle an honest and respectful conversation. They immediately fall back into the cocoon of their beliefs and don’t want to understand/accept new information or think about what they believe.
It would be easy to say that the Internet is to blame for this, but it isn’t. I saw this happening growing up and people not using the telephone. People who wrote letters were doing the early form of texting. Writing a letter is about avoiding contact, and avoiding coming to terms with things that you don’t want to acknowledge.
Isn’t it strange that we often think that the way we see the world is the obvious way things are until we converse with someone else? Then based on their life experience, their point of view seems valid. We don’t help anyone by dismissing their point of view. Too often people just dismiss others instead of listening to them, and they lose because of that.
People long for connection, but they don’t act in ways that promote connection. Put your phone down, and stop texting. Look into my eyes when you talk to me, and have an open mind. Stop trying to be a puppet for others’ beliefs, and try to explore what it means to be you. Or if you are an empty shell, then shut up and let someone who is a full human being speak.
We are making life cheaper the more that we forsake what it means to be human.