Gracie's Snapshot: ^ Look Up ^

This poem by Gary Turk is a bit lengthy but you MUST READ IT. You HAVE to read this. NOW. His words speak truth about the society we live it today. I hope this will challenge you and possibly change your whole perspective on life.

Look Up

by Gary Turk

I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely.

I speak to all of them everyday, yet none of them really know me.

The problem I have sits in the space in-between

Looking into their eyes or at a name on a screen.

I took a step back and opened my eyes.

I looked around and I realized that

This media we call social is anything but;

When we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut.

All this technology we have it’s just an illusion;

Community, companionship, a sense of inclusion, yet

When you step away from this device of delusion,

You awaken to see a world of confusion.

A world where we’re slaves to the technology we mastered,

Where information gets sold by some rich, greedy… [person],

A world of self-interest, self-image, self-promotion,

Where we all share our best bits but leave out the emotion.

We’re at our most happy with an experience we share,

But is it the same if no one is there?

Be there for your friends and they’ll be there too,

But no one will be if a group message will do.

We edit and exaggerate, crave adulation,

We pretend not to notice the social isolation.

We put our words into order till our lives are glistening,

We don’t even know if anyone is listening.

Being alone isn’t the problem let me just emphasize

If you read a book, paint a picture, or do some exercise,

You’re being productive and present not reserved and recluse.

You’re being awake and attentive and putting your time to good use.

So when you’re in public and you start to feel alone,

Put your hands behind your head, step away from the phone.

You don’t need to stare at your menu or at your contact list.

Just talk to one another, learn to co-exist.

I can’t stand to hear the silence of a busy commuter train

When no one wants to talk for the fear of looking insane.

We’re becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies

To engage with one another and look into someone’s eyes.

We’re surrounded by children who since they were born

Have watched us living like robots and think it’s the norm.

It’s not very likely you’ll make world’s greatest Dad

If you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad.

When I was a child I’d never be home,

I’d be out with my friends, on our bikes we’d roam.

I’d wear holes in my sneakers and graze up my knees,

Or build our own clubhouse high up in the trees.

Now the park is so quiet it gives me a chill,

See no children outside and the swings hanging still.

There’s no skipping, no hopscotch, no church and no steeple.

We’re a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people.

So look up from your phone, shut down the display,

Take in your surroundings, make the most of today.

Just one real connection is all it can take

To show you the difference that being there can make.

Be there in the moment as she gives you the look

That you remember forever as when love overtook,

The time she first held your hand or first kissed your lips,

The time you first disagreed but still loved her to bits,

The time you don’t have to tell hundreds of what you’ve just done,

Because you want to share this moment with just this one.

The time you sell your computer so you can buy a ring

For the girl of your dreams who is now the real thing,

The time you want to start a family, and the moment when

You first hold your little girl and get to fall in love again,

The time she keeps you up at nights and all you want is rest,

And the time you wipe away the tears as your baby flees the nest,

The time your baby girl returns with a boy for you to hold,

And the time he calls you Grandad and makes you feel real old,

The time you take in all you’ve made when you’re giving life attention,

And how you’re real glad you didn’t waste it by looking down at some invention,

The time you hold your wife’s hand, sit down beside her bed,

You tell her that you love her, lay a kiss upon her head,

She then whispers to you quietly as her heart gives a final beat,

That she’s lucky she got stopped by that lost boy in the street.

But none of these times ever happened.

You never had any of this.

When you’re too busy looking down,

You don’t see the chances you miss.

So look up from your phones, shut down those displays,

We have a finite existence, a set number of days.

Don’t waste your life getting caught in the net

Because when the end comes, nothing’s worse than regret.

I am guilty too of being part of this machine,

this digital world we are heard but not seen,

where we type as we talk and read as we chat,

where we spend hours together without making eye-contact.

So don’t give in to a life where you follow the hype,

Give people your love, don’t give them your “like.”

Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined,

Go out into the world, leave distractions behind.

Look up from your phone, shut down the display.

WOW. I read this and was convicted about doing this in my own life, but realized how every single day we do this without even knowing.

We base our lives on how many people like our Instagram photo or how many comments we have on a Facebook status. How many “followers” or “friends” we have on these social media sites.

Honestly, when you really, really think about it, it’s ridiculous. We value the opinion of people on a screen that sometimes we have never said more than a sentence to in real life than the people who we are surrounded by each and every day. We get so sucked into our screens that we MISS OUT ON LIFE. Literally.

We spend countless hours and time involved in this "world of screens” that we do not see the beautiful Life Scene that God has laid before us.

We need to be people who embrace the lights in life. And who do not try to be the light in life. Christ is our light. We are not. Each moment can be described as a light. We are to live in them, embrace them and make the most of them. We are not supposed to try and make them reflect us as we do on social media. They are to reflect our awesome Creator.

Take your phone, ipad, ipod, computer or whatever screen is in front of you and put it down for a long while. Do not look at it. Trust me, you will survive. Go outside and just sit. Or take a walk. Read a book. Sip some tea. Invite a friend to come over and talk about life. Invest your time in someone one. Some idea, organization, something eternal. It is the small things in life that matter. The moments you spend doing Something.

ESCAPE THE ORDINARY. When I first saw this saying, I loved it. It reminded me to live original and be my own self. Who cares that everyone else is wasting their life on social media. Sure doesn’t mean I have to. Be the person in a room who wants to talk to real people. Or just listen to the voice of a human. Not some stupid automated voice on a screen.

Life is so beautiful. It is EXTRAordinary. Look up. Acknowledge it. Believe it. Live it.