Todays information and relationships

I wish to be offline. I wish to not engage my “following” in my day to day life. If I get off of facebook, twitter, whatsapp, Instagram and get rid of my cell phone do I still exist in today’s standards? Can business be done when we remove our umbilical cord to our tech devices? Can friends and relationships last if we ditch the smart phones and stop snap chatting every person that comes into our life.

I still give a lot of importance to forming new relationships, friendships and interactions but I think I need to know when to let them go. I need to realize that perhaps that relationship fulfilled all we were ever going to get out of it in our 5 minute interaction waiting in line at the grocery counter or on our two week holiday in Laos. Why do we have to hold on to everything we come across? I don’t believe we need to find more meaning in these interactions than what presented itself to us. Let's view them at face value and know that what we got out of that interaction was all we needed for that time and if we see that person again well, we were meant to!

I find I hang on to these blissful interactions I have with people I met when traveling, friendships from elementary school or random encounters with “strangers” throughout my days. It is crazy that I can meet someone, only know there first name, where they work and the city they live in and I can find them online and I wouldn't consider myself a skilled internet stalker. I find that I do not know how to properly process this influx or information and new relationships and feel that I can be quick to get overwhelmed.

Philosophy: Release through Knowledge

In life I search for freedom. In this sense of freedom I feel released; released from all kinds of societal pressures to fit into a certain mold. It has become a life long journey to consciously feel free no matter what my situation becomes however many people will find addictions to get this release. These addictions may show themselves through food, exercise, relationships, sex, drugs, alcohol and philosophy… yes philosophy is a search for release through knowledge. I had never quite thought of knowledge as a release but it certainly is. When I write I critically think about many different people’s opinions and life perspective. I become lost in thought, when I form new opinions and then I experience a sort of academic high. I feel the more I know the more I can live freely. However this is a falsity. To be truly free is to acknowledge death of the ego; to let that ego slide away in order to become present, humble and content. Freedom then becomes the constant practice of releasing the grip my ego has on my identity.