Disconnect to Connect

A note from the editor

It has been particularly challenging to pick just three short stories, so we have decided to reward all the writers in this short list   with a free fiction-writing workshop with Palanca award-winning writer Cyan Abad Jugo:

1. Nurul Awang of Temple Hill International School (Escapee)

2. Danielle Kiana Bernabe of Paref-Woodrose (Skylar)

3. Shannen Marl Casugbo of Hua Siong College of Iloilo (Perfect Minus One)

4. Bienvenido David IV of College of San Benildo-Rizal  (Simply Peculiar)

5. Juan Diego Gumila of Sacred Heart Academy of Pasig (Night Equine)

6. Renee Mariel Ngo of De La Salle University Integrated School (Torches)

7. Corine Dale Margery Y. Publico  of Philippine Science High School CAR Campus (Keeping the Light in the Dark)

8. Kai Gabrielle Sanico of Hua Siong College of Iloilo (Adopting Happiness)

The date and venue of the workshop will be announced later. Don’t change your e-mail addresses, young writers, or notify us if you do.

God created us competent enough to learn by simply looking, listening and experiencing. We are gifted with thought and imagination, with undiscovered limits. Today we are fortunate that man’s inventions, through this giftedness, have transformed our lives and even ourselves.

We have cell phones, computers, tablets and laptops that give us access to instant communication and boundless information, such that we seem better informed and more connected than ever. These devices have been enhancing the quality of our lives.  Efficient time savers, they allow us to do more—we can be talking on  our cell phones, surfing the net, awaiting an e-mail reply while figuring out how to tackle a school assignment.

These devices appeal to all ages. Toddlers and kids have tons of learning applications and entertaining games. So it matters much these days how kids score and best themselves in Candy Crush.  Teenagers have access to all kinds of social networks.  We can meet new friends, arrange dates, even pick petty quarrels.  At a click, we can also get any and all information we need for school.  Adults can swiftly communicate with friends old, new, dear and not-so-dear.  They can also make creative presentations for the office.  Elders can reach out to their loved ones abroad through e-mail, Skype or FaceTime.  Or they can retrieve then keep their most precious photos and go over them whenever they need or want to.

It is clear to us how wonderful and important these devices are. They can keep us connected to people on the other side of the world or even those we have never met. It is as if we enter a big, new world through a small door.

Now that we have grown so used to these devices, life seems harder without them.  Look around and almost everyone is connected to virtual reality but somehow disconnected from the real world.  With our eyes glued to the screen, our fingers tap dancing on the buttons, we have become unaware of our surroundings. We miss out on the “here and now.”

We are on the Internet day and night that we no longer see the sunrise or the sunset, not even the stars at night. We are so caught up in the Net that we become absent-minded even when we are not on our devices. We say everything on the Web that we find ourselves too exhausted to make real conversation.

We eat dinner together and get lost trying to “document the event” that we totally “miss out” on the moment.  We get distracted as we take pictures of the amazing food on the table that we forget that we are supposed to dine and bond with a friend.  We even forget to pray.

We ride our cars, but we do not notice the enchanting mountains we pass.  A person on a bus, deep in thought, is staring out of the window, smiling and she is the odd one out because she is not glued to a cell phone.  Another person, also without a cell phone, says hello to a seatmate and everyone thinks she is strange.

We post pictures of ourselves then check and recheck for “likes” and comments that we get because we want to be noticed as being pretty or handsome in selfies.  We even compare ourselves to other people by lurking at their photos, even if the truth is we look our best when we establish eye contact and when we simply smile at others.  We count our photos, our friends and followers but we forget that our days are counted as well.

Is this mode what we now consider as social, informed, connected and in fashion?

I, for one, do not own a cell phone because I’ve never thought I needed one. Instead I use the landline at home. There are a few times when a cell phone can be handy, I admit. Like in cases of emergency, or when I have to call my mother who is at work while I am alone at home. I would like to call her cell phone through my own and not the landline so that our home phone bill would not be too high.

Owning a cell phone and relying on it too much create our over-presence in the virtual world and lessen our presence in the real one.  With a cell phone, we look at everything that pops up on the screen and hear everything that comes out of the speakers, but we do not notice the world around us.

Perhaps we can look away from the screen and be surprised. Walk outside or go for a ride and look at the view that is better than the pictures we see. When we pay attention to those around us, we can meet extraordinary people who may turn out to change our lives and whose lives we may change just because we are there.

Let us talk to our friends and listen just as well. When we look them in the eyes, we connect with them in ways that any social networking never can. Let us talk to our mothers, our fathers and our grandparents from whom we can learn things we will never find on a website, the things that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. We can play with our brothers and sisters, and have the most fun we will ever have. To laugh with them is the kind of memory that we will keep in our hearts.

We can try to disconnect to connect by not checking our cell phones constantly or rushing to surf the net.  As we leave these distractions behind, we can seize life all we can without needing to post our whereabouts.  We can also live through the senses God has gifted us with: seeing real than virtual, tasting al dente penne instead of posting a plate of pasta, holding the wrinkled hand of our grandmothers as they share their bits of wisdom.

We must not let a screen block our sight from what is most important or we will never know what we are missing.  We must be present in the world.

Mariana Bella Ablan is a Grade 9 student at Temple Hill International School (Quezon City).

2 essays

A ‘Perfect’ Family

Emergency Rooms