By Limor Shiponi
So here we were walking out of Boulder High, and whether we realized it or not, we all mumbled one form or another of “well, that was ok, we’re alive”. We had to rush different ways so it way bye-bye time for now. I went to hear a panel but something was working its way through my unconscious mind…
Then it hit me – at the school we were humbled and what motivated that humbleness was a scent of physical fear.
Sitting in close proximity to a huge young mass,
not knowing what exactly is going through their minds,
how they will react to what we say and…
what they might do
made us carefully consider every word and intonation. We were more truthful, simple and clear. No fancy tricks we all have up our sleeves, no show elements, no forced “feel good” humor. All of us reached the recognition – and we said so – that eventually they will have to learn how to discern good from bad. Considering some of the speakers’ bio, that was a powerful recognition.
When the people are actually there in front of you, you can’t give yourself all kinds of fancy explanations and buzzword justifications that will eventually allow you to dehumanize them. Dehumanization on the media, including social-media, comes in many shapes and forms. Some are very subtle but they are there. You could never perform them if the person was right there in front of your eyes. What made it super strong was the physical mass.
I’m used to intimacy with a lot of people I don’t know, which comes from being a storyteller. Still, for the first few moments, I felt discomfort. When you go digital you don’t have to suffer a physical discomfort but you lose the intimacy and the possibility of being intimate – for real.
Psychologists all over the world see patients that arrive to their clinics because they’ve lost interest in non digital sex and they can’t be intimate with another human being. Now think about storytelling going digital – it’s exactly the same problem even if you are just about to cancel out this idea as you read it. Think again. Better – feel again.