Like me. Share me. Follow me.

Does the world get more selfish? Without judging or knowing the answer, I am asking myself that at times. Well, there is not just one answer to that, as there is not just one situation to judge. Times always change. And some things become better, others worse. But at times I feel that we live in this moment now where things are more and more being taken for granted and the attitude of a small thank you has become less. And those moments where you feel an honest interest from your counterpart seem like an illumination amongst the endless monologue conversations that I experience. Is it the social network syndrome? Tag me. Share me. Follow me. Like me. Overwhelmed by self-focus and tons of input, do we lose the ability to really listen, to really take in what someone wants to share with us and to respond with a sincere interest and an honest compassion for the worries, joy and experiences of someone else and are we satisfied with contributing our interest for the world and others by just liking something? Without judging or knowing a real answer I sometimes ask myself if life and others have mainly become servants to us for the accomplishment of our life plan and if we have we lost the ability to appreciate things. And with my last question I ironically come back to the Me again, because ultimately how does this constant need of sharing each of our moments and this connecting habit, affect how we connect to ourselves at the end?

text by Sigrun Guggenberger
image by Aurélien Buttin