<p>"Look Up" by Gary Turk</p>
<p><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I speak to all of them everyday, yet none of them really know me.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The problem I have sits in the spaces between,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">looking into their eyes, or at a name on a screen.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I took a step back, and opened my eyes,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I looked around, and then realised</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">that this media we call social, is anything but</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">when we open our computers, and it’s our doors we shut.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">All this technology we have, it’s just an illusion,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">of community, companionship, a sense of inclusion</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">yet when you step away from this device of delusion,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">you awaken to see, a world of confusion.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">A world where we’re slaves to the technology we mastered,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">where our information gets sold by some rich greedy bastard.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">A world of self-interest, self-image, self-promotion,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">where we share all our best bits, but leave out the emotion.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">We are at our most happy with an experience we share,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">but is it the same if no one is there.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Be there for you friends, and they’ll be there too,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">but no one will be, if a group message will do.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">We edit and exaggerate, we crave adulation,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">we pretend we don’t notice the social isolation.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">We put our words into order, until our lives are glistening,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">we don’t even know if anyone is listening.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Being alone isn’t the problem, let me just emphasize,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">that if you read a book, paint a picture, or do some exercise,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">you are being productive, and present, not reserved or recluse,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">you’re being awake and attentive, and putting your time to good use.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">So when you’re in public, and you start to feel alone,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">put your hands behind your head, and step away from the phone.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">You don’t need to stare at your menu, or at your contact list,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">just talk to one another, and learn to co-exist.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I can’t stand to hear the silence, of a busy commuter train,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">when no one wants to talk through the fear of looking insane.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">We’re becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">to engage with one another, and look into someone’s eyes.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">We’re surrounded by children, who since they were born,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">watch us living like robots, and think it’s the norm.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">It’s not very likely you will make world’s greatest dad,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">if you cant entertain a child without a using an iPad.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">When I was a child, I would never be home,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I’d be out with my friends, on our bikes we would roam.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">We’d ware holes in our trainers, and graze up our knees;</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">we’d build our own clubhouse, high up in the trees.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Now the parks are so quiet, it gives me a chill</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">to see no children outside and the swings hanging still.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">There’s no skipping or hopscotch, no church and no steeple,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">we’re a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">So look up from your phone, shut down that display,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">take in your surroundings, and make the most of today.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Just one real connection is all it can take,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">to show you the difference that being there can make.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Be there in the moment, when she gives you the look,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">that you remember forever, as when love overtook.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time you first hold her hand, or first kiss her lips,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">the time you first disagree, but still love her to bits.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time you don’t need to tell hundreds, about what you’ve just done,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">because you want to share the moment, with just this one.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time you sell your computer, so you can buy a ring,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">for the girl of your dreams, who is now the real thing.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time you want to start a family, and the moment when,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">you first hold your baby girl, and get to fall in love again.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time she keeps you up at night, and all you want is rest,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">and the time you wipe away the tears, as your baby flees the nest.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time your little girl returns, with a boy for you to hold,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">and the day he calls you granddad, and makes you feel real old</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time you take in all you’ve made, just by giving life attention,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">and how your glad you didn’t waste it, by looking down at some invention.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">The time you hold your wife’s hand, and sit down beside her bed</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">you tell her that you love her, and lay a kiss upon her head.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">She then whispers to you quietly, as her heart gives a final beat,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">that she’s lucky she got stopped, by that lost boy in the street.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">But none of these times ever happened, you never had any of this,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">When you’re too busy looking down, you don’t see the chances you miss.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">So look up from your phone, shut down those displays,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">we have a finite existence, a set number of days.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Why waste all our time getting caught in the net,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">as when the end comes, nothing’s worse than regret.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">I am guilty too, of being part of this machine,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">this digital world, where we are heard but not seen.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Where we type and don’t talk, where we read as we chat,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">where we spend hours together, without making eye contact.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Don’t give in to a life where you follow the hype,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">give people your love, don’t give them your like.</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Go out into the world, leave distractions behind.</span><br /><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">Look up from your phone, shut down that display,</span><br /><span data-mce-mark="1">stop watching this video, live life the real way.</span></p>