Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Reach Out and Touch Someone




I love this video, but somehow it makes me feel uneasy. The fact that this video has gotten almost 50 million hits says something about our society. Shouldn't people be giving hugs to other people rather than watching this 50 million times on the internet? Let me ask you this: How many of your Facebook friends have you hugged in the past month? How many have you seen in person? I hate to say it, but I hooked up with a lot of high school friends through Facebook, but I have yet to see one of them in person!

It seems the internet allows us to connect with a huge amount of people while staying very isolated in the confines of our bedrooms, offices, or cubicles. All of our communication is heading toward the intangible--emails, photo sharing, social networking, video conferencing, twittering, online banking, shopping, dating, etc. When I was younger, social networking used to be called "making friends." I like this terms because it uses the active verb "to make." "Making" is a very hands on activity like "making" art or "making" dinner. Facebooking used to be called "hanging out with friends." The difference is that you used to have to be present "in person" to hang out.

I hope this encourages you to reach out and touch someone. Give them a hug. Make them dinner. Make them some art. Write them a letter that they can touch, smell, feel. You are not your font, but your handwriting is truly unique. I still have handwritten letters from friends that I cherish, but I have never held onto an email no matter how much I was touched by the contents.
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