Dumb(lost and never)founded

I’m sure I’ve posted about this before and I’ve made the point time and again verbally but we are in some sad times these days.

As smartphones and other devices become smarter and we become even heavier in our dependence upon them, we are being stripped of our abilities as human beings.  Some moreso than others.  One of the most noticeable things I have found is that people don’t READ any more.  No I’m not talking about books and stuff – heck we have Kindles/apps that allow us to download our daily digest.  What I mean is things like social networks and SMS, whereby we post micro blogs and these factors have conditioned us to only focus on the short and sweet items.  TL;DR is a common thing these days.  If it’s not around 160 characters we don’t bother with the rest, we switch off – similar to if someone is droning on and on about shit that is of no interest; rather than tell them to shut the fuck up we just look at them vacantly or, more often than not, resort to looking at our phones in a subconscious hope that they shut up as they can see we’re not interested.

What brought this to light for me is the fact that I own Nerdgazzum…it says so on all of my social media profiles and just Google ‘LaCosaNostra84’ and you’ll find shit loads of stuff about me.  Google knows me better than people that I know in the real world!  The number of people I know who haven’t heard of Nerdgazzum yet I post about it so much is staggering – alright, some may say I spam and switch off but still – I know abut shit that doesn’t interest me such as items in the news that I find pointless or redundant and the media shoves that down our throats daily.

This is just an example I can give about myself but how often does it happen to you?  You say or post something and someone asks you a question that you already answered when you opened your mouth or hit ‘Submit’.  People don’t pay attention any more.  They hear but they don’t listen.  It’s a sad state of affairs and we are all guilty of it in some way.  Some of us way more than others.

The world has changed in so many ways – a lot for the good…but just as equally or perhaps moreso, for the worse.  Chances are no one will read this or if they do, they won’t get this far!  Technology s killing the majority’s braincells and interpersonal skills.  I’d rather text people than speak face to face.  I’ve always shied away from people and technology has allowed me to facilitate that behaviour further.  I hate speaking on the phone – I have a contract with unlimited minutes and on average I use zero per month!  SMS used to be my main method of contact but even now with unlimited SMS I probably use less than a dozen a month.  Twitter, Facebook and other digital forms of contact are my methods and this is pretty much the same for a vast amount of people.

It’s hard to break way from it and I doubt any of us could but I guess the main thing to take away from it is to at least be aware and push the envelope from time to time and come out of our comfort zones every now and again.  The written art is becoming a dead language – not many people take to writing at length and as a result their voices are being lost.  Instead, we just tread water in a sea of stupidity, laziness and complacency whilst folks who make a living or dedicate time of their busy lives to shout out to the world via informed and worthwhile written pieces to fall upon deaf ears and go unnoticed.

It’s a crying shame and this also fuels the failure of so many talented individuals who are striving to write in some shape or form as a hobby or or a living due to the fact the realise this stark reality and give up because they feel it’s a worthless venture.  I only hope at least one person makes it to then end of this post – if that happens then all hopes may not be lost after all.