Do you have BBM?

When I was in 5^th grade, our school held an event that entitled every student to stay away from electronic devices for one whole week. Negating obvious electronic necessities (lamps etc.), students were supposed to stay away from anything containing a screen. This meant no iPods, no computers, no laptops, no televisions, and no phones. As expected, less than 25% of students were able to complete this task.  The reliance on electronic communication devices has indeed become extremely prevalent in society today. Over this recent winter break, my mother had to hide my father’s and my blackberries, just so that we could spent some time in solitude. A vacation meant to be spent on the beach was spent typing away at BBM, Whatsapp, and MSN messenger, despite the fact that I had not brought along my laptop .

I found the article ‘The distraction society’, to elaborate on this new technology obsession in a very interesting way. I had never before connected the recent technology boom to the concepts of existentialism. The notion that humans are restless creatures, all to avoid realization of their current situation, holds a certain truth. It seems almost as if over time, the human civilization has become more accustomed to the ideals of existentialism, and therefore have become more restless. Stress is caused because humans feel there is a lack of time, for we feel like we have to do everything all at once, as soon as possible. However, Nietzsche’s ideas seem to imply that we are imposing this stress upon ourselves, to escape from true “human issues: pain, boredom, anxiety”. The irony in this is that it is this pain and anxiety that causes stress, and vice versa.

When reading this article, I thought of this ideals in a more extreme light. Why is it that meditation is such a difficult process? Many existentialist ideals seem to correspond with Buddhism, so I decided to research some common difficulties that most people have with sitting still and thoughtless for hours, in order to meditate. The most common difficulties are sitting still, restricting ones thoughts, and dealing with their true emotions.  (http://www.meditationoasis.com/how-to-meditate/difficulty-meditating/). It is interesting to see that the major difficulty humans have with sitting still, is avoiding these distractions that are caused by our own thoughts and surroundings. Perhaps the existentialist theory is true, we shall only attain happiness once we attain realization, and come to peace with the terms of life.