happy new year 2025
Another year gone, and as I shuffle closer to the afterlife, I find myself increasingly looking around and thinking ‘the lights are on but no-one’s home’. Not the jogger with her earbuds in. Not the teenager with the oversized headphones listening to his beats. Not the late-night shopper talking on their phone whilst completely ignoring the exasperated minimum-wage shop assistant. And certainly not the vigorously texting couple ignoring the one they’re pushing in the pram. At times, I move through a world of people who are hardly there, and who seem not to want anyone else to be there either. A palpable aversion to direct contact has become the norm.
Overnight, Covid understandably emptied the streets but this ‘less-present’ limbo society is self-inflicted. My fellow man appears dazed, numb, their attention captured by tiny devices and the content within. What’s more is that they appear not only bored but hostile with it: engage with me at your peril as the ubiquitous coffee I carry is secretly a scalding hot weapon. Tech has convinced us that human contact is inconvenient, unpleasant, unnecessary and even dangerous.
The need or desire to withdraw and avoid the potential friction of contact comes from the view that nonparticipation is a form of self-protection. But it was never like this. Stepping-out, promenading, strolling to see, and be seen, was a celebrated, welcomed part of life. Whether it meant showing-off your Sunday best or merely out for a gawp, the democracy of street life was based in the trust of strangers and the sense of all having something in common. With hindsight, it was confidence inspiring. I suspect this is shunned and programmed-out in the designs of new technologies.
Many of the old points of connection have consequently disappeared – ATMs replace people in booths, self-checkout replaces the manned cash register, membership renewal and settling the bills are done online, as can buying almost everything. The takeaway boom, and its moped delivery, means you can eat to your heart’s content and avoid contact almost entirely. Silicon Valley’s brightest sparks have made this a reality, along with the white-collar phenomena of working from home. WFH has seen the demise of the coffee break and the water-cooler moment, and loosens the bond of worker cohesion developed via friendships, mentorships, human contact and conversations. Furthermore, let’s not forget that, in the 80s, the second most common way couples met was through work. Notwithstanding the proliferation of dating-apps these merchants of withdrawal have made it harder to connect.
Tall tales of people consciously rejecting smart phones and online life do exist but they’re King Canute-esque, they’re salmon swimming upstream. Resistance is valiant but futile. Probably. So, before I am ultimately replaced by an AI chatbot, my challenge to you for the coming year is to get out there in the real world, sans device, and shake a few hands, raise smiles, nod a greeting or two, talk, laugh, eat, drink, make merry and be connected. HNY.
