Bursting the Bubble

So today, a couple of my classes happened to bring up the same concept and I thought, wow, that's pretty cool. Why not blog about it? So, here I am!

Technology is pretty cool. It's given us a realm of connection to our friends almost 24/7 through facebook, msn, and of course, blogs! hahaha. It has been prized as being an intermediary between cultures and the transfer of cultural ideas to other parts of the globe, broadening our perspectives on life and the issues facing not only us but other parts of the world.

But... I'm going to say that technology has done very little in terms of bringing people together. Television, for example, has only subsisted to broaden our worldview and make us very small in our surroundings. News makes us aware of all the bad happening in the world, rarely reporting on the good as to make us scared of everyone we meet and see. It builds up a world in which we are distant from everyone around us. They become these scary "unknowns"-they COULD be terrorists! they COULD be child molesters! they COULD be murderers! AHHHH!!

Likely... not.

If we turned off that silly television of ours and decided to go out and meet people, we might realize that those "scary people" are few and far between. We might learn that people's "stories" (as I like to call them) are quite amazing. What we see as one individual is actually the product of sooooo much history. That person walking by us on the sidewalk has hopes and dreams, maybe he or she has already fulfilled some of them-wouldn't it be interesting to find out which ones? Maybe that women you see waitressing for you is trying to save up money so that she can intern with a development agency over in Africa. Maybe the men whose cleaning up the halls of your residence or office building is in truth a former paster whose just trying to get ends meet. Perhaps the person doing karoke at the local pub is in truth trying to fulfill one of her life goals of conquering a fear of singing in public. The person waiting in line at the bank is an aspiring musician, struggling to make ends meet.

People are amazing beings that inspire and give hope; we just rarely ever tear ourselves away from the false realities we set up to recognize the real ones. So I guess the challenge that I need to face and I hope others will to is to go out and meet people. To discover who they are, why they're like that, what they dream of, how crazy wonderful they are. Let's burst the bubble of individualism and reach out for something better-community!