#OneHourForOurselves

Hello Friends,

This idea came into my mind along with the previous article of What will our future look like? But as I progressed writing about this I thought, this idea should have its own article. So here you go…

I feel that with ever increased amount of social media and information we are just taking in everything without even processing, the very sense of one’s existence is being put in question mark with lot of fake information and the constant want of grabbing and swallowing all the available information. It also sometimes affects our self worth and creates loads doubt in our minds about our own life and our worthiness.

We always are on our phones or on TV. While we are commuting, while we are at home. We don’t sit idle anymore. We don’t take a break, switching off every screens and think anymore. We always have some series to binge watch, some movie to complete and another list of things we want to watch after the current one is finished. We spend times watching YouTube videos we must already have watched or even trailers on Netflix deciding what to watch. In other times we are always thinking about the things we watched and not about actual problems. More and more people are living in that virtual world, thinking about those virtual things instead of the actual one.

But, as we have learnt, human being is a social animal and we need to understand that society is not in social media, its in people around us. It’s a physical thing and not some virtual reality. I am afraid, with all this disconnection from actual world, eventually people will go numb or mad when they will not get approval from social media anymore; they will forget their physical, actual existence. People will get disconnected from the actual people so much that they won’t survive. They will either be controlled by the people running social media or AI (As we saw in The social dilemma) and that is indeed more dangerous truth we are already marching towards.

So what do we do in this situation? What can be a solution to this?

I have a small suggestion to make for the solution of it. I am not sure how effective or practical it is but its a thought. I think all our future gadgets should come with a 1 hour mandatory sleep time. We can take it anytime in the day but we must take it or our devices will stop working. And this time should be utilized to read physical books, to play in the garden, to visit the beach, to exercise or run or walk or for any kind of physical activities, to socialize with our neighbors or our park mates or beach mates or even office mates.

I know, you can think of thousands of loop holes in the systems and being an India I myself have already though of them already.

But, The purpose is to make us understand to disconnect and live that one hour in present, with ourselves and with other people we are surrounded with. This one hour is to take a pause, to think, to realize what we actually have and what things we can be thankful for. To exercise or do physical activity or play out in the park or board games with family and friends, not for the sake of getting likes or views on social media but to make us fit, healthy and happy. To cook with our spouses or family, to talk with our friends, to connect with the people who actually mean. To explore our beautiful surrounding, sunrises, sunsets; not to post a snap but to enjoy and to take in visually the colors of nature or breath that fresh air which will make us ready for the next challenges. To talk to our family about our days, about our issues and to listen to their issues, their days, stories which they may have about us or our sibling’s childhood. To wander around malls or local markets just to window shop. To feel each and every moment, to take a snapshot of the moment in our minds so we can tell stories to our children and grand children.

This one hour should be a compulsion, it should be an escape from every screens and virtual distractions which we constantly live in. And it should be utilized to grow, to find happiness around us and not in screens. To think, to retrospect. To connect with actual people and to learn loving ourselves. To find the meaning of our existence, to find our worth, to boost our confidence and to more forward even if an inch towards our passion which we want to follow since long.

If you like this idea, let’s make it reach to people and try and find ways to do this. We can just start making #OneHourForOurselves possible at least in our lives and lives of our loved ones. If not daily, at least let’s start weekly and see the results.

Would love to hear your thoughts and views in the comments section below.

Thank you.