Hyper-connected, but never more isolated
Am I alone in this?
I was hoping to have exciting news of my new website this week. I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks and last night I had finally SEOed the bejaysus out of it and checked the links and all that jazz and was ready for lift off. I followed the DNS swapping instructions which always terrify me and hit the appropriate go live button.
Error 1014.
No idea (answers on a postcard please). So I emailed the tech person who I think is a person and not a bot, but you never know, and I have no idea what timezone they are in, all I do know is that it isn’t mine. A trade of emails between us has left me still sans website and I think that they are possibly catching some zzzs right now.
I went to the doctors yesterday morning. You can no longer call for an appointment,. Rather, you have to fill in an online form at the right time of day along with a picture of your ailment (as long as it is PG thank you very much). Someone - or something - then sends you a text message to recommend some over-the-counter medication. That doesn’t work so you fill in the form again to say that you really do need to see a doctor IRL. You then are advised that you can indeed have an appointment as long as you can get to the surgery immediately.
Which you do, only to wait for an hour in the waiting room with no one to ask why or how or who, because you signed in via a screen and no one seems to know anything.
After the docs you to the supermarket. Pick up a few things only to find that any manned checkouts are decidedly unmanned, unwomanned, unnonbinaried. Self service it must be, but don’t forget to weigh that pepper and those bananas before you serve yourself at the checkout. Those scales are two aisles back in the depths of the supermarket, by the way.
You get home and arrange your child’s parent’s evening through an app. It will all be online, each session 5 minutes to check whether both of your cameras and microphones are working before you gesticulate a thumbs up and the screen goes blank.
If you want to meet up with a friend, or call, you text beforehand to arrange a time. No one pops in because ‘they were passing’. That would be weird.
Hyper-connected, but never more isolated:
‘This email is to advise you that you will receive an email imminently about email storage.
This email is to advise you that you received an email recently about email storage.
This email is to ask you to please review the email you received earlier about email storage.
This email is to ask you to please refer a friend to receive emails about email storage.
This email is to advise you that your email storage is full.
Am I alone in this?
How are you finding things?
Is it me?
I’m hoping that my lack of website news is a serendipitous catalyst to a conversation about connection.
I’d genuinely love to know.
How are you feeling connected with people?
Do you notice a shift?
If so, how do you feel about it?
I’d genuinely love to connect!
That’s it for now, ‘til next time.
Jacky ✨
PS. Oh, and check out my new account on Insight Timer where I am sharing my recorded poems. No, I’m not doing any live gigs any time soon, but thank God for this app eh?!
I agree with what you say. I hate most of it. I would love my son to pop in with the grandchildren because they were passing. I would love to genuinely connect with people over art, photography and writing. Therapy and coaching sessions as well as art lessons and women’s circles are all via zoom, for me much better in person, the only advantage is that I can be in the virtual classroom with a teacher anywhere in the world. And the joy of writing and receiving letters has vanished