On Saturday, February eighth, I began and concluded my examen practice. This examen allowed me to become aware and vulnerable of my communication and relationship with others and the world. It allowed me to reconsider my actions and words. Because of the developing technological world, it is common that we ignore who and what is around us. This Jesuit examine practice allows us to disconnect from the clamorous technological distractions that linger around daily.
While communicating with my friends via social media, I noticed how many times our conversations were cut short or not finished at all. In person when I communicated with people; it was easier to complete a conversation, but they were more short-lived and less meaningful. The way that people today communicate on social media is far briefer than the way that people communicated via letters or even in emails. Humans are so quick to verbalize via Internet without giving much thought to our words, but we should consider what we say on the Internet more than we do in real life because social media is permanent. I have also noticed that I have begun to restrict myself more when it comes to communicating via social media and real life; it is restriction in a good way, but it doesn’t quite orchestrate how my brain truly considers certain situations or concepts. Communication nowadays has successfully made the majority of people with access to the Internet more careful with the fragility of their words. I was watching a video of an interview between the famous comedian and tonight show host, Jimmy Fallon and the famous “Queen of Drag”, RuPaul. Fallon had referred to RuPaul as a drag queen, which caused him to repeat “Drag Queen?” over and over dramatically, and her reaction incited fear in Fallon as presented on his face because he thought he had either got the term wrong or said something offensive. Fortunately, RuPaul was just joking with Fallon and corrected him, naming herself the Queen of Drag. This is a clear example of how we as a whole have restricted ourselves in our speech because of our fear of either being wrong, offending someone, or provoking anger.
As I unplugged from social media and every other form of technology, I realized how vulnerable I was, and how bored I drew without technological accompaniment. The boredom ceased when my mind conceived the idea to make myself some tea and read out of my biology textbook because why should I not. As I was reading it was hard to scrutinize what my brain was trying to comprehend while glossing over organized drops of ink that were too abundant and clustered together, appearing to be more difficult to read than information presented on social media. After flipping through a few pages, my boredom returned from its short trip, so I went outside for a walk. As I walked, I noticed how many people I saw in groups; it reminded me of how in elementary school we are enforced to partake in the buddy system when we are outside. This idea presses the fact that nature is dangerous and so are the people in it, but I also thought about how I have ventured outside numerous times alone and returned to my final destination unharmed and untouched. Although there is a possibility that I could have been harmed, the possibility remains the same if I was indoors, with the group of people, or anywhere else. Shootings, bombing, a sudden ambush an many more threatening forces could pounce upon me in any situation. When people are in groups, they tend to notice less things than someone who is alone. When you isolate all other distractions, new beings invent themselves in your vision that you never noticed while distracted.
After unplugging and plugging myself back into the digital world, I realized how much I miss daily and how much we all miss daily of the beautiful and obvious but veiled beings around us. We are unified with nature and each other but are quick to point out our physical differences.
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