I wonder if humility is going extinct.
Instant status updates at the click of a button is a way of letting everyone know what we are doing. This information used to be reserved just for close friends and family. I am not exempt from these updates. I do them too.
In a way, I think maybe something is getting lost. Instead of connecting, maybe there is a disconnect. Maybe we are forgetting how to simply be, how to develop our own merits silently and quietly without the world knowing every twist and turn we take.
Not too long ago, before Facebook and other social media platforms, I think humility was a good friend of mine. When I lived overseas, the blogosphere hadn't even been thought of yet. I lived alone in a tiny apartment in Japan and taught English. At times I felt so isolated and extremely lonely. I felt like I'd fallen off the map. I had to pinch myself on several occasions to make sure I still existed.
With the invention of the internet and social media, I was able to connect with so many people. It's been amazing and the positive side of it all is that I was able to meet many, many more people than I would have ever been able to before. Some of the people I've met via internet, through my blog and other platforms, I've had the opportunity to also meet in person. I'd never trade this for anything in the world.
But lately I've felt like disconnecting again. I've felt like closing my Facebook account, discontinuing Twitter, letting my fanpage go and packing up this here blog.
What is that all about?
I don't really know actually. It's something I need to explore, I guess.
Part of me fears what will happen if I close up shop and disconnect. Will I disappear? Will I fall off the map never to be heard from again?
I really don't know.
To tell you truthfully, when I start something, I usually try and finish it. I am committed to this blog and I've committed myself to writing 365 Inspirations this year.
So chances are, I won't close up shop. But I do hope to find my old friend humility again. I really miss her. Here are some words I like about humility by Krishnamurti:
"To learn about oneself one needs a great deal of humility. If you start by saying, “I know myself”, you’ve already stopped learning about yourself. Or if you say, “There is nothing much to learn about myself because I know what I am—I’m a bundle of memories, ideas, experiences, tradition, a conditioned entity with innumerable contradictory reactions”—you’ve stopped learning about yourself. To learn about oneself requires considerable humility, never assuming that you know anything: that is, learning about oneself from the beginning and never accumulating. The moment you accumulate knowledge about yourself through your own discovery, that becomes the platform from which you begin to examine, learn, and therefore what you learn is merely further addition to what you already know. Humility is a state of mind that never acquires, never says, “I know”."—Krishnamurti
Do you feel that social media and blogging has perhaps made the world less humble? Do you think there is a lack of humility as a result of these outlets?
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