We are a connected world, a world fueled by globalization, expansion, competition with an underlying tone of collaboration. This is what happens when you connect people from all over the globe. We are fueled by each other's creativity, innovation; we are inspired and ignited by each other's differences and when you combine all of these differences in opinions, emotions, feelings, backgrounds, and ideas, you realize you are a part of a collective consciousness, which has a direct impact on the way you operate as an individual.
If you start to really dive deep into what the brain is, (synapses, connections, a network of information connecting impressions and ideas) it seems pretty similar to the World Wide Web. Based on this concept, we are practically being fueled by this world brain, which is connecting us to each other and some may say, disconnecting us at times from ourselves. I have written numerous articles about human beings' interaction with technology. I have analyzed the minified of anxiety on Facebook, the idea we are in control when it comes to technology (robots make you more human), and the concept of how our relationships have changed from strong to weak links. The world is changing because we are changing, and we are changing because the world is changing. It is this fascinating chicken vs. egg phenomenon.
While we have been in the wild, wild west of technology, throwing ourselves into the wireless dust, forgetting about rules or regulations for ourselves, we have forgotten how every single thing we do, say and share adds to this collective consciousness. I have found it is so much easier to make an excuse about GPS not giving me the right directions, or my conference call running over, than fess up about what is really happening, which is I am still learning to maintain balance and stay present with the people I love. I must note, I am mainly in Metropolitan areas, and so I am not by any means assuming this is the collective consciousness of the world, (which by the way is not entirely connected and driven by the internet as millions of people do not have this access).
If I were to describe the collective consciousness of NYC, Las Vegas, San Francisco, LA, and the "millennials" who are living in these regions as well as other Metropolitan areas in the world, I would prefer to use the term, collective (un) consciousness. We are so busy, so jam packed, so connected, so in touch with news, opinion pieces, statuses and Instagram images we sometimes forget about looking into our loved one's eyes, (and I don't mean on Facetime).
So where does this leave us? It leaves us with an empty feeling when we are with the people we love, when we have our phones buzzing in our pockets as people in our lives confess their deepest darkest secrets, and all we can think about is I wonder who just emailed me. It leaves us feeling disconnected from our passions, our ambitions and our dreams, from goals we can't set for ourselves outside of our "busy" work schedules, and it leaves us forgetting about how powerful we are, alone, and more so together.
This not an opinion piece on the negative roles of technology, this is simply an observation piece on how we have used technology to create barriers and boundaries to each other and to parts of ourselves. My friend Hunter Lee Soik, a very humble and intentional person in everything he does, and who is most recognized for his brilliant creative consultant work on the Jay Z/Kanye Watch the Throne Tour, decided to use technology as a way to reconnect each and every one of us to ourselves and to each other.
He has designed Shadow, a tool, (I prefer to use this word as I think app is downplaying this), to help us remember our dreams which launched September 17th on Kickstarter. I have found as we get older and our dreams become dictated by what society says we should be buying, dreaming, and doing, we have forgotten our very visions, and what drives us in a deep meaningful way to be who we are. Jung and Freud studied the power of dreams, and now with the use of technology, the first iOS alarm clock which uses escalating alarms taking you through your hypnopompic state, (from asleep to awake) slower than a standard alarm clock and a way to record your dream and then push them into a giant anonymous data cloud which users can review and compare with their own patterns, we can remember and literally track our dreams and the world's dreams.
I have been lucky enough to remember my dreams, (even the ones I wish I forgot), but 95 percent people forget their dreams. Even more so, while I may remember a wolf chasing me or me losing all of my teeth, I somehow forget how my biggest dreams and ambitions play a role in the decisions I make in life. I forget about what I want for myself past my work goals, I sometimes don't see people who are right in front of me, and I think it's ok to "multi-task" when a friend is asking me for advice, or someone is telling me how they feel about me.
I think if we can start to see how much we play a role in the consciousness of the world, we will remember how important it is to stay conscious with ourselves. We can build a foundation on what's really important to us and to each other, and we can remember to shut our phones off (until they wake us up that is), look in each other's eyes and keep on dreaming.