Hello Litty, Are you there at home? I answer restively — “Oh yes.” Then the brooming, brushing, and cleaning start with some quick fix refreshments to serve the guests. Although I am quizzed by those who want to come home to see me I love inviting friends, cousins, churchmates, and colleagues.  Ever since COVID has taken over our lives this is something that has changed our lifestyle, way of thinking, socialising, working, and even catching up with friends by chance.

Since everyone’s time is precious who knows if they are checking to see if we are at home as travelling from one city to another is a torment. Way back the doors were open and there were no hard and fast rules as such.

In our work world, we need email invitations, Zoom calls, and teams meeting on a professional ground. It’s not the over ornate hectic life but the lack of interest that is shown. Our smartphones have taken over and we get so glued to them that we converse with them and the physical interaction is fading.  Missing out on the social vibes where even religious rituals and practices have turned out to be rigid, people also lack social skills which are leading to clashes.

We are inclined to develop and experience elevated levels of stress and inflammation. This in turn undermines the well-being of nearly every bodily system including the brain.

The lockdown that forced millions of people to work from home also accelerated online communication tools, implicating we get even less human contact than ever before. As in some countries, remote working becomes the norm, transaction process is automated with self-service machines too.

The hideous truth is whilst technology has its pros and cons it does have a cosmic impact on the way we converse putting us at risk of being alone.

Our objective is to ensure we get enough real-life human contact in our lives and brush up on our little social skills knowing what to talk, how to talk, and when be it in your personal and business life so this is why this time I opt to stay out of socials during my upcoming recess. Let’s see if I can live without it for a few weeks.

Mathew Litty — By email