THE WORLD IS YOURS TO EXPLORE

DO  YOU REMEMBER A TIME when people spoke to each other on the street, in a train, sitting at a bus stop or waiting in the supermarket check out  line? When eye contact and a smile was an opening, not a reason to look  down and away?

What  do you say we “GIVE IT A GO” again? No need for cold turkey turning off  your phone or technology for hours, days or weeks. Just incorporate  those possible special moments of face to face communication throughout  the day.

“GIVE  IT A GO” pinned to your shirt or jacket says you are willing to be a  part of a communication revolution, even if it is just five minutes at a  time. Those few words signal to the world that yes, I am aware of the  world around me and people passing within an arm’s reach. I am willing  to embrace the world in my immediate vicinity and meet someone new right  next to me, not only to stare at a one dimensional screen.

The  technological world is truly amazing. It gives us unlimited  opportunities in many different ways, but if we forsake the connections  all around us, is all that technology really worth it? We cannot  un-invent technology but we can re-invent the way we use it.

If  someone had told you we would have to rediscover a way to talk with  each other in this, the age of instant communication, you might have  scoffed at them, but look around any city, town or village. Every moment  spent bent over our phones as we move through our day we may be missing  the golden opportunity of connecting with a person right in front of  us. We are slowly losing the art of reading a person’s face, body  language or intonation when they speak. Even phone calls are slowly  becoming obsolete.

A few years ago we may have made lifelong friends through a random meeting on a train or in a café, but today these connections are becoming fewer with each new piece of technology, game or app we choose to spend our time with instead. The younger generation may never have made a friend in this way, brought up with a fear of meeting strangers or having direct contact with others face to face in a world of texts, instagram and snapchat. That world now owns much of the interpersonal connections we make with  our fellow human beings. True communication is free. A smile and a  conversation may go a long way to heal the wounds that disconnection has  fostered on the planet.

So  pin on a badge saying “GIVE IT A GO” and if you see someone else  wearing the same, give a nod, smile and maybe even have a chat. Carry a  few badges in your pocket to hand out to others who might also be  willing to “GIVE IT A GO”. Let’s relearn the art of talking to  strangers, because a stranger is a friend you simply haven’t met yet,  the person next door, or the woman squashed up next to you on the train –  just another human being moving through their day.

Go ahead, “GIVE IT A GO”!!