Early on in my career, when I was still a substitute teacher, I came across a sight that bothered me.  There were several students sitting in the front row of the class, and they were on their phones.  What bothered me was not so much that they were on their phones, but that they absolutely did not make any type of contact with each other.  I found out they were friends, and I walked by and told these students that life was going to pass them by, and they would not always be near each other like they were now.  I told them to get off of their phones and to talk with each other face to face.

I saw that what I said made the students think, but I also noticed some of them were still inching back to their phones.  So, I did something radical; I told them that if they put their phones away, I would not check to see if they were working.  They put their phones away, and I saw the magic that comes when people interact face to face, the way they were made to interact.  I monitored them closely, and to my surprise, they pulled out their work, started working, and continued speaking with each other.

Those students learned an important lesson that day.  They learned a little bit more about what the value of life means.  We only have certain people in our lives for so long a time, and we should value that time with them because one day we will not have that gift of being with those people.

Picture © Daniel Hanna 2013

Last year, a Bush and a Clinton were running for office.  A Jurassic Park movie came out in theaters.  A new Star Wars trilogy made its cinematic debut.  Goku and Frieza fought each other, and Cory and Topanga had more brand new adventures.  What year is it?

You’re probably thinking it is 199-something.  It’s actually 2015.  The above examples (except the political one) show how nostalgic our 21^st Century American society has become.  There are so many older concepts and series coming back with fresh new continuations even after these shows and series ended years ago.

Our Nostalgic Generation has three strong forces driving it:

Picture © Daniel Hanna 2013

                                                                                                                                                                    Picture © Daniel Hanna 2013

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”  -Aaron Siskind

About a year ago, I was on Facebook when I saw that a friend of several of my friends passed away.  He was a young adult.  So many of my friends were posting memories of him that I decided to go to his profile.  I saw many pictures of him with my friends.  I came across one that left an impression on me.  He was smiling at the camera, confident and content.  I wondered about the ideas, goals, and dreams he must have had that had been cut short due to his untimely death.  Further, I thought about his family who had lost a son and brother, and they would never see that smile in real life again, but they would in these pictures.  And I thought about his friends who would no longer be able to spend time with him.  This picture made me think about the power of photography and what it used to be.

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”  –Pablo Picasso

“The practice of the arts is cleansing to the soul.” –Ms. Darbus, High School Musical

All we have left from the most ancient peoples who walked the earth are objects.  These objects are usually art and pottery; take cave paintings for example and their beautiful designs along with accurate representations of the animals that lived alongside ancient humans.

From the earliest civilizations that had writing, the earliest objects we have are art and poetry.  Archaeologists call the objects they find from the earliest civilizations artifacts.  This word’s origin shows that archaeologists recognized that the majority of what ancient cultures left behind and that has lasted were works of art because the word artifact literally means, “work of art.”

While the earliest humans had a clear inclination toward art, we too have that inclination.  This is because art and humanity are inseparable.  A French theologian in the 20^th Century named Jean Danielou stated that one of the two great callings of humanity is art.  This is true regardless what place or time humans may be living.  Art is prevalent in all cultures whether they write or not, whether they are primitive or technologically advanced, and whether they are even intentional about it or not.

There are two points of consideration when it comes to the arts and life, but first it needs to be clear that humans have a need for the arts.

Hello everyone,

I have started something new this week, and that is writing poetry based on the theme of my blog: “Being Human in the Digital Age.” This is based on the feedback of you all who took my reader survey last month, and in it, all of you who took the survey said you would like it if I wrote poems every month and half or so.

So, here is my first poem for this blog.

The people talk,

but they don’t move their lips.

–

They have their friends

that they have never met.

–

They read their cards,

that they have never touched.

–

They still talk, befriend, and read,

but they have become machines.

“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”  -Thomas Aquinas

Friend.  For many people these days, all that word means is a person that has added them on a social media account.  That person can act against or have no connection with you other than you see them regularly.  However, this is not what friendship is.

In the Western languages I have studied including English, the word friend always comes from a root that means “to love.”

A friend is therefore a person who loves you and whom you love.

So, what is love?  Love is trust, support in hard times, and when a friend tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

According to an article in The Telegraph, the average Facebook user has 155 friends, but he or she would only trust four if a crisis comes up.

Kobe Bryant has just finished his incredible 20 year career with the Lakers.  For many, he is one of the best basketball players of all time second only to Michael Jordan.  For others, they were inspired to take up the game of basketball watching his career.  This brings up the idea of legacy.  Legacy means that which is handed down.

There are many examples of people and books that have an enduring legacy.  The Bible, The Lord of the Rings, and To Kill a Mockingbird are all books that people have heard of.  This is because these books have had a massive impact on people, have inspired people, and have even caused people to change the way they think.  With respect to sports, people know athletes like Babe Ruth when it comes to baseball; Michael Jordan when it comes to basketball; and Pelé when it comes to soccer.  This is because these people set new records in their sports, brought originality to their games, and inspired other athletes who became successful as well.

Enduring legacies are due to the massive influence that these books and people have had on their own generations and subsequent generations.

Before the internet, a person’s legacy was generally limited to loved ones and the people with whom he or she worked closely.  In order to get a wide-spread legacy, one had to work extremely hard to build a platform to get himself or herself known.  If a person wrote a book, then that book might influence others, but that depended on how well that book was marketed.

The internet, however, has changed the way people leave their legacies in three ways.

I was hanging out with a friend one time, and we were talking about a trip we were going on with other friends to San Diego, and my friend talked about how wonderful it was going to be to lie on the couch and text while in San Diego.  So I responded, “You are going to San Diego to text?”  He replied, “Yeah, but it’s San Diego, so there will be a difference.”

Looking back on this now, I realize that my friend had a grasp (although very weak) of a concept, which is how places are different, but he also experienced placelessness.

Placelessness has become a bigger problem following the digital revolution and digital communication.  While before the digital revolution, we had a somewhat clear sense of place, with different spaces being set apart for different functions such as home, church, schools, parks, beaches, amusement parks, concert halls, and theaters, that sense of place has been disappearing with the constant distractions and interruptions of digital technology.

If everywhere we go, we check our phones for texts, or Facebook and Twitter for status updates, or check one of a million other possible notifications related to our apps, then we will lose our sense of place.  Every place becomes a place for texts, news, and notifications, and the functions that separate and distinguish each place from another become blurred.

However, placefulness, the strong sense of place and the distinctness that each place has, helps us in three ways.

“We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” –Herman Melville

Those thousand fibers are the little actions and words we hear frequently in our communities.  These actions and words that we frequently hear help us formulate values that our communities pass down to us.  A thousand little fibers by themselves are weak, but when they are put together, they become very strong.  Such is the influence that acts on us; most of what we do is consequent on the influence we received from the community around us, and this is the power of community.

However, in modern Western society, the idea of community has been collapsing as the family unit is collapsing, which is the basis of all society and communities.  Churches have seen stagnation, and schools have seen decline in the quality of their education.

The result of the collapse of community is a high rate of dissatisfaction and even depression.

We should make all efforts to participate in good communities because good communities have three benefits: