Shuffling, heads bowed down

Shuffling, heads bowed down
Black mirror reflecting back
Disconnected world

Another morning coming off a shift rotation. A morning of tiredness after a night shift. I would have loved to climb right into bed, but the school run beckoned. So breakfast was made, the kids were ready, I said goodbye to Jill and Grace, and then it was time to take Max to school.

Admittedly, I was a bit grumpy from tiredness and working nights, resulting in me being a little short with Max, trying to get him out the door and looking presentable. He has a habit of looking a bit scruffy at times. Maybe I should be showing him more how to take pride in his appearance.

I'm working on my temper, and I think I've got better over the year, but there's always room for improvement.

Speaking of improvements, on the school run, I took notice of the number of people glued to their phones. Walking with their heads down, consuming content online. Well, I assume the majority of them are. What was startling was the groups of friends all walking with phones in hand, not talking to one another. Missing out on the connection right in front of them. Missing out on the world around them.

Yet so many people are lost in a digital world instead of experiencing the best things in life. Completely filtered and curated to keep eyes on the screen.

I was one of them. I used to doom scroll for hours on end. Then I decided something had to change. Now I limit myself to 80 minutes of social media a day. That time is split between TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Now I use my phone a lot less, and I've even turned off all the notifications from different apps, only keeping those for messages or phone calls.

My phone was demanding constant attention, and since I've made that move, I'm more present, more engaged with the people around me. I'm not perfect, far from it. The urge to doom scroll is still there, but I'm trying and doing my best to spend less time on my phone.

I hope one day these other people see this in themselves and decide to reduce their phone usage. Even just a little bit to understand what is right in front of them.

An imperfect world with genuine interactions that fill our souls.