Brain cells sucked into the Phone vortex

Ok Lets try this. 

Ahem.... testing , testing.... can you hear ... I mean can you read me? 

IT has been a minute. 

I am, I would say, very rusty at this. So please excuse me if I start to just ramble with no substance what so ever. 

Plus, by now, I would expect you too, would have the attention span of a squirrel, the way social media has trained us all. So feel free to tune out. Have you felt the same? Being sucked in to the mind numbing, fear mongering, brain frying, time wasting, life stagnating void of ..... our phones? And all the computer, www aps and socials and googles and AI that our phones come with? 

This pandemic shit has been ... shitty. I often wonder what would life be today if it never even happened? What trajectory would our world be headed to and what trajectory would my life have gone to? 

I suppose some things would have continued to how they are today, but I bet I would have been a few pounds lighter, and my hormones would be a bit more balanced, and I definitely think that I would look younger than I look today, Less greys perhaps, and I would have continued with squash and my condo would look a bit nicer, I feel like I would be a bit more intelligent and possibly a bit more focused? But! I would not have known how to make awesome home made bread and I would have discovered less of Ontario, thats for sure. 

On a more serious note, I would have hoped that I would have had my dad with us for a little bit longer and I would have been less angry and upset at the world and possibly my fellow neighbour. I would surmise that the world would have been a bit more normal, sane and less sensitive than it has become. 

Crazy what the world has been through in the last 5 years. I would say, that the world has been through some pretty extreme emotions. And how easy it is to get sucked into this phone entity to either be drawn to the craziness of it all or distract you from it instead. 

I look back at society and mankind to have glimpses of what was accomplished: the pyramids, the conquests, the development of towns, cities , metropolitans, architecture, inventions and innovations, discoveries and advances in science and agriculture , and the barriers broken to understand people globally .... I feel although the usual tendency is to think we are advancing, I feel like we are regressing. A universal, if not just North American, Dumbing down so to say. Not just due to the Pandemic, but possibly sped up by the Pandemic. The so called "advances" in technology to make things "easier" for us, have instead replaced some of our drive to think and do things for ourselves. My dad mentioned this long ago as I was growing up, "why do you need a calculator?! Can't you just calculate it in your head?" He also often talked about his "BPS" = Brain Positioning System instead of using the "GPS" , in other words just use your head and maps to figure out directions. We no longer memorize phone numbers because its just a contact name click away. It may seem like little things, but I feel it all adds up to make people less self reliant , less self resilient. Even dealing with everyday life situations as been made to be "easier" for us .... well just even our phones .... why look anything up in a Library, or dictionary anymore, why be patient enough to wait to talk to a person when you actually see them when you get home or see them on the weekend when you can contact them immediately, why wait to pull over to answer the phone, why allow yourself to become bored enough to think of other things to do or accomplish that day...we have grown to want things done immediately, and things to draw our attention and keep it, and we have grown to make sure everything is there to make us feel good/ or better or happier. And society has gone the extra step to also make sure that everyone else is responsible for your emotional welfare. 

Anyways.... I forgot where I was headed with this and it has been an effort to get this out.... possibly for all the same reasons above. But I do write this because I realize I should be exercising this part of me again and getting back to the time before the pandemic had sucked out our attention and creativity and thought.