While I was in the gym this morning, I caught part of a new AT&T commercial. In it, a young woman is somewhere surrounded by unsavory strangers, but she has her whole living room around her and is watching her favorite movie on her own TV. Next, we see the same woman surrounded by the same strangers, but she's actually watching that movie on her phone.
The lesson – you can escape from the big, mean world full of nasty strangers anywhere, anytime by watching movies on your phone. Ok, so we all need a break from the world sometimes, but what happens when our heads are constantly buried in neatly packaged mass media? What are we missing out on?
What happened to serendipity?
There's something magical that happens when you pay attention to the world around you. The word "accident" has such negative connotations, but so much of life is a happy accident. Think about how you met some of your best friends. Mine were in college – people who just happened to move in across the hall or accidentally sit down at our dining hall table during dinner. I didn't make them fill out a 27-point personality profile or check to see how many Facebook friends we had in common.
What about the bad stuff?
There's bad stuff and bad people in the world, no doubt. Unfortunately, there's also a whole world full of 24-hour news exaggerating all the bad stuff just to fill the hours. Think about the stories in your own life. Do they start "Remember that time I bought that product on Amazon with the 5-star review?" or do they start "Remember that one night in that diner with that awful waiter?" How "bad" is all this bad stuff, really? Are we hiding from a harsh reality or missing out on the little things that make our lives unique?
Won't my friends tell me?
We have social media now, right? My friends will tell me everything I need to know – what shows and movies to watch, where to eat, etc. Think about it, though – who discovered these things in the first place? Someone had to take a chance and try something the first time. Do you want to be the person who gets to make those discoveries, or the person who waits to hear what the average opinion is and then acts only on the shadow of everyone else's experiences?
What are you missing right now?
The other day, I caught myself looking at my daughter's baby blog photos while she was awake in the other room. I'm on the internet all day – it's a force of habit – but it really hit me. Here she was, just 20 feet away, and I was taking time to live in a shallow memory when I could be creating new memories. If I hadn't been forced to watch the Today show while I was on the elliptical machine, I would've TiVo'ed over that AT&T commercial, and never even thought about any of this.
We all need a break now and then, and I'm not here to bash technology, but turn off the phone or the iPod for a few minutes, and look around. You're missing out on your own life, and some chances don't come around twice.
