Let me first start by saying again, this post is neither political, nor anti-anything. It is merely an observation of what the world looked like through my glasses!
We Truly did Watch ALL The things!
So here I am in 20221 still reflecting on 2020 and how it changed the way we live, think and interact with each other as a society. With the International Pandemic, and worldwide panic shutting down virtually everything that was not virtual; the world descended into a world of digitry. ( It’s my own word, look for it soon on wikipedia) There was a drastic increase in the number of people watching streaming services, and binge watching 2020, an increase of somewhere around 30%.
We watched everything there was to watch, we even watched things that normally would not catch our attention. We spent an enormous amount of time on social media, debating social issues. The stress and anxiety of being locked up in our fortresses of solitude helped to fuel the debates and anger. Active censorship was instituted by several social sites under the guise of fact checking in an effort to slow the rhetoric. Media outlets drew further to one side or the other as the center slowly drifted away. The great American wedge was once more firmly planted to separate us.
OMG There is an Outside.
As the weather began to break, there was an influx of visitors to parks and preserves, causing many to be closed due to overcrowding. Having watched ALLL the things and argued over everything and anything out of shear boredom, people needed something to get them out of their castles. People who normally don’t hike or do outdoors, discovered outdoors. They brought their radios, which they played on the trails, and they brought their trash which they left on the trails. While normally I encourage everyone to learn to love nature, I wish they would come with some respect for her as well.
Lessons unlearned
2020 was a year in which we as whole saw our whole worlds turned upside down by a microscopic organism that none of us wanted to see was coming. Unlike the Pandemic of 1918, we had been warned. Unlike the Pandemic of 1918 we have unlimited access to minute by minute news broadcasts, and a way to connect and communicate with those whom we wish to stay closest to. Too bad we as a society don’t yet know how to properly use and navigate our resources in such a way to weed out the propaganda and misinformation fed to us on a regular diet.
I hope I did not offend anyone with this post, but if I did we probably shouldn’t be friends anyway. We all see the world through our own set of glasses, defined by our own experiences and interactions with the world around us. It is not how you see the world that really matters, it is how you interact with it that is lasting. The biggest thing I learned this past year, was how to be active, without being reactive. I am still working on it, but am improving everyday!
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