Yesterday, I found out that Papyrus, a stationery store, filed for bankruptcy. A place that connects people's special occasions in life from when we first see the light to our last breath. It is another example of how it gets more important each day to revisit our place in the ecosystem and how we contribute to making our system work in the long run. This post isn't about how to save those businesses and more about how it affects us as a species.
We spend our days filled with busyness from the moment we wake up until the end of the day when we say "Good Night." We all work hard to meet our needs. For some, it comes with ease, and some need to work hard to get those necessities satisfied. Everyone has a different perspective on how we achieve it. What I believe we all can do is give a few thoughts on how we play a part if businesses are thriving or closing down and focus on why we should go out and connect with strangers. Because our work and activities take time, we make choices that help us to be more advantageous in time and to end the day with one less thing on our to-do list.
Of course, time, technology, and instant gratification play a considerable role in why a lot of businesses we grew up with are closing down, and I am sure there are just as many and more that are opening up online. And it isn't solely the goods department. Also, the food industry is increasing online and the take-out market because of convenience and lack of time. Thinking about the effects our actions have on the planet is undeniable the increase of cardboard boxes and plastic. Not that the stores don't create them, just not as much as they receive the products in bulk. Additionally, what I see happening is what we might not realize is the lack of human connection with a salespersons, waiters, or other customers.
The main concern is that we unlearn how to communicate. We only expose ourselves to the bare minimum of what we need to talk about. There are times where we hardly get a "Hello" out. Those low stake moments to share our existence or concern and to handle a direct face-to-face response would help us find more comfortable to express ourselves in a more difficult situation. I experienced many times that people don't know what to do with a "Hi," or even a smile. It takes a couple of practices to get used to giving and receiving these little interactions.
Another aspect of increase online shopping is time and how we spend it browsing for a particular item. It is fun and also extremely time-consuming. We keep scrolling through pages, and the next thing we know, one hour has passed, and we still haven't found what we were looking for, and most likely, we even ended up looking for something else (the wonders of digital distraction).
Reflecting on what is time? It is different for everyone. However, it is the one thing we only have 1440 minutes a day, of which we sleep a decent amount (wishful thinking). My appeal to today's post is to revisit our days. How we spend them and pick one of the activities, we get done on a phone, tablet, or computer and arranging them in-person to increase our human connection and explore our great skill of communication, verbally and non-verbally.