Staying Human In A Digital World
Our digital world is louder than ever before, but our inner world is where meaning and purpose is found.
This is easy to forget or even know, when we spend so much time on our digital devices - scrolling, posting, consuming - the endless clamour of being “on” and trying to keep up with a pace our nervous systems were never built for.
We are living in digital overload. Living in a hyper-connected world that asks us to be visible, available and responsive - all the time!
Our attention is constantly being pulled outward.
We are addicted to busyness, distraction, noise and consumption - and many of us don’t even realise it.
Is it any wonder that so many people are struggling with anxiety in our modern world?
The sad truth is, that somewhere amongst all the noise, many of us have become untethered from the deeper, wiser part of ourselves and knowing who we truly are, beneath all of the external distractions.
Social media taps into our most fundamental human needs - connection, belonging, recognition - but offers them in quick, shallow bursts rather than deep, nourishing ways, that feed us from within.
For so many of us, this sense of being pulled away from ourselves has happened gradually and unconsciously. We don’t even realise the impact that being on our digital platforms so much, has on our lives, especially our nervous systems and our mental health.
Our worth does not come from external validation, likes, followers or metrics, or presenting a version of ourselves that is curated, polished or filtered.
The strange paradox of our time is that we are more connected than ever before, yet we are living through a loneliness epidemic.
In his book “Stolen Focus” - Johann Hari writes that “loneliness isn’t the absence of people - it’s the absence of connection”.
Not the number of likes, comments or emojis on our posts or the number of names in our phone, but how many people we truly share ourselves with.
And now with artificial intelligence weaving its way through so many aspects of our lives, some questions we can consider are:
* Where is my attention going - and is that where I want my life to go?
* What is the emotional cost of always being on and reachable?
* Does technology deepen my relationships - or dilute them?
* How can I still be connected to human presence, warmth and understanding outside digital platforms?
* What practices help me return to myself when the digital world pulls me outward?
* What kind of art, writing, work, dancing or contribution do I feel called to make because I am alive in a body, not a machine?
* What do I want to stand for in a world that rewards speed and busyness over depth?
* What does “staying human” mean to me - in practice, not theory?
* How does social media make me feel drained and where do I need firmer boundaries around technology?
As the digital world accelerates, our task is to slow down enough to feel our lives from the inside and to create, express and connect from places that algorithms can’t touch.
How we show up in the digital world is our choice.
In the end, staying human isn’t about rejecting technology, but maybe we can use it as an invitation to use the tools of the future without losing the wisdom of being human.