Living in the digital ages

 

A child of the 90’s I got my first cellphone in high-school, got a Facebook account just when I went to university and had dial up internet for the majority of my late teenage years. I won’t lie, even if that was the case we had chat rooms/MIRC/MSN and got the early glimpse of what is to interact behind a screen. Does ASL (age, sex, location) tell you anything? If not I’m getting too old. The point is, we couldn’t pick up the massive pc tower and take it with us nor keep these conversations on our mobile phone.

PIcture: The Vice German 'Weltraumober' editorial, shot by Elizaveta Porodina

The faceless interaction would end when the screen was shut. Now we have access to everything, at any place and at any time. Answers to any questions and thousands of data and images on anything. Exotic places and small islands in the middle of nowhere are now shot in 1080p while people vlog their daily lives for everyone to see. And while there is a sense of knowing that place that face behind the screen, do we really know them? I saw a girl once run towards a famous you tube personality in the middle of the street, this girl had the sort of intimacy with a person they’ve only ever met behind the screen, with the kind I have with some of my closest friends. The “famous” guy was polite and very nice to her but at the end of the day, they are strangers! The small video you see, the insta-story, the 10 chats you get, are selective, what people want you to see, what people want you to read.

How many times has someone asked you online “how are you?” And your answer was “Okay”. How many of those times where you actually okay? In retrospect it’s not that people necessarily go out of their way to lie but that’s what they want you to see. You are not there physically to see them crying and essentially emotions are devoid in monosyllabic words and short sentences.

Your closest friends don’t really fit in that category though, you chat online just because it’s faster to exchange a few messages or you have too much work and don’t get the chance to call. Is chatting with your friends even daily, enough to withdraw from real interaction? When you meet for coffee or drinks with them do you actually listen, are you present? Most of the time I see groups of people taking a ton of photos, while carefully considering which hashtags to use rather than talk to one another.

In the age of swiping right to select your match, texting while driving and taking more photos of moments instead of living in them, what we can all do is be kind! Sounds weird I know but be kind, that one photo that someone uploads is not who they are entirely and before you jump to conclusions think. Next time, don’t text your friends, meet with them, and actually chat for hours about the future, the universe all the moments you shared in the past and the new ones you are going to create. But above all don’t hide behind your screen, be kind and be brave.
 

28

Twenty-eight
I’m finally 28, I feel so different but at the same time exactly the same!
I don’t have a ton of wrinkles that can tell you a story, I don’t have thousands saved in the bank and I am not where I thought I’d be when I made a wish on my 16th birthday to grow up!

Being away from home for almost ten years has taught me most of all how to be happy with being alone!
I have transitioned from a pessimistic and undoubtedly angry teenager to a person filled with eternal hope, a person with patience and a person that sings in the car while driving! One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that is okay to think something but that doesn’t mean you have to say it out loud.
If someone is mean, let them be mean, it’s not your place to let them know, if their parents didn’t teach them manners, you don’t get to be the one to talk to them about common courtesy. I’ve surely but slowly developed a filter. When I was younger I used to be so angry with people when they’d sugarcoat the truth or say hello to someone they just spent an hour gossiping about.
I still get angry today, but at least now I get it! I get the whole pretence of being polite, saying what you wanna say without being hurtful and saying hello to that one person you don’t really like.
I get it but I think is going to take some time before I’m the one that’s waving. Everyone grows up eventually, Maybe when something bad happens in the midst of tragedy or maybe with time. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t made mistakes, no one is faultless and no one is born with an instruction manual titled “Life”. The amazing thing about getting older except from credit cards, is the fact that you learn from your mistakes in hopes that you don’t repeat them again.
True growth comes from within, accepting what cannot be changed and changing what can! I am blessed to have been taught by many people in life, by “friends” that left that life goes on, by an acquaintance whose wife abandoned him, bravery in raising his children alone, by a relative that passed away that is okay to be loud and being yourself, by my best friend suffering with a spinal injury that life will get better if you are strong, by a close friend that lost her father, that you can stand tall and work hard despite being overwhelmed by grief.
I’ve been taught by a lot of individuals and all of these lessons were important, they made me who I am today, a better me. I’ve spent this summer taking half a breath, worrying about everything and everyone putting up the bravest face. The next bad news I would hear, what will happen next, what if? Right now thinking about it I realise how stupid I’ve been. As if worrying can change something! But the latest lesson I’ve been taught is that your life as amazing or as horrible as it is, can and will change in a split second.

Be thankful for what you have. I’ve learned so many things in these 28 years, harsh realities about life, beautiful stories about love, met one of a kind people, been forgotten by so many others. Most importantly I’ve learned that life goes on! Live your life your own way, play by the rules but don’t be afraid to break them. If you believe and I mean truly believe in something stand your ground, be authentic to who you are.
Many of our thoughts are curated and imprinted on us by our surroundings, our culture, our misconceptions so don’t be quick to judge, to accuse or to crucify. You may know people but you don’t know their story!
Here’s to another 365 days around the sun!
“-Do not judge my story by the chapter you walked into”- Unknown

DREAMER

“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together a reality”
–John Lennon.

Welcome to Rey, the brainchild of one individual, a dream that has now become a reality.
A dream that now translates into a team of creative and inspired individuals, who are ready to contribute to that one person’s idea. Isn’t that crazy? How a dream can become an idea? How a dream multiplies to dreams.

To kick start this column let’s talk about dreams!
How appropriate for new beginnings don’t you think?
We’ve all had dreams, small attainable ones and others so big and obscure it’s hard to
imagine them coming to life (president, pet detective etc.).
It’s not easy to take these abstract thoughts I have about life and dreams and write them down. These conversations take time, hardship and trials and believing in your dreams needs that voice inside you to be awake and inspire you. Just take a moment and go back, go back to that first moment when you said to yourself I want to be that, I want do that, why can’t I be there?

Now look around you. Where are you? Did any of your dreams come true?
Throughout my life I’ve had dreams, just like any of you reading this, some are further down the
pipeline and I know deep down that they require time but other dreams are within my grasp.

While I’m hitting road blocks every time I make a step, I catch myself in that one moment of
insanity going maybe I should change careers, open an organic shop and sell produce, build a hut
at a beach and live there... But is it really my dream so hard to achieve, or is it the fear that life
will be good to me after it becomes real?
Are these road blocks stopping my dream or is my dream ultimately not what I’ve imagined?
And what happens after? Is this going to make me happy?
Insanity I’m telling you, but the truth is that dreams are what keep us wanting more, working
harder and becoming better. Essentially they are the cliché “threads in the fabric of what we call
life”. So what I’m trying to say is dream bigger, because why the hell not?
At the end of the day ask yourself “what’s the worst that can happen?”
If the worst happens, can you bounce back?
Of course you can, except if your dream is to kill someone, which is a “No No”
and then you end up in jail!
You definitely deserve that so no complaints from me.
Let’s just spend a minute in silence mourning for the dreams that got away.
Can we get themback? Only if we want to!
“Dream On” by Aerosmith describes in plain language this concept “Dream on, Dream on, dream
until your dreams come true”.
We all have dreams throughout life, but how many of us are putting
ourselves out there and are ready to face anything for these dreams?
How many of us are ready to risk it?
Ultimately I’ve come to believe that we all sugarcoat our dreams from when we are
little, that’s why so many people give up and only a few succeed at the end.

If there’s one thing you should take away from all these ramblings about dreams is to go get your
dreams and if your dream is not what you expected ask yourself, is it because it’s hard work?
Because you should know by now that nothing comes easy and nothing comes free.

Welcome to Rey, by a dreamer for dreamers.

Andria Kyriacou

picture by George Cassapides