January/February 2012 Editor's Blog
2012: Breaking Downs Walls with Technology
by Vicky Thompson
Vicky Thompson
As we finally enter the year 2012, I can’t help but reflect upon the enormous amount of hype around the 2012 prophecies. Hit movies, documentaries and books galore have focused on this year as a time of potential Armageddon.
Tragedy sells, and the end of the world is a good story. But 2012 is not about the world ending. Mayan and Hopi prophecies focus on 2012 as a transition from one world age into another. To me, the 2012 transition represents a shift in consciousness when our separation from each other has the potential to end, and each one of us can choose to experience a revolution in relationships.
What’s the number one factor in breaking down barriers between you and me? Technology.
In the cyber world, there is no separation between us. I can friend you on Facebook and you can follow me on Twitter. The personal is public, and the private individual no longer exists in this brave new world of smartphones and on-the-go technology. The physical constraints of time and space in meeting new people are eliminated by social networking news feeds. I can friend people I’ve never personally met and be granted a ringside view into their lives.
With this opening of the curtain into your personal life, I am exposed to new ideas and concepts that I may have never seen. Because your personal life and views are presented as newsworthy, I pay attention to your ideas in a whole new way. When I open my mind to these new stories, I can experience an awakening in my consciousness — we are more alike than different.
This awakening drives you and me to express ourselves in bigger ways. I can post my disapproval about the financial state of the economy, adding to the millions of posts from other friends who are despairing over how to pay rent this month. This distress call filters into my subconscious mind and into your psyche until it explodes into a movement like Occupy Portland, Seattle and Wall Street. Your thoughts are touching me on a deeper level, breaking down the barriers between us.
Why don’t the messages of mainstream media break down the walls between us?
Because it takes your thought, your focus and your commitment to the message to make the difference in the level of attention I pay to the idea. We have become desensitized to many mainstream messages because of their commitment to crisis reporting, which can be unbalanced in what’s really happening in the world.
However, on Facebook you state it like it is, breaking through my walls because I now see a real person having real experiences, both positive and negative. It’s hard to ignore you, and your energy digs deeper into my thoughts, changing who I am in the world.
So if our walls of separation are crumbling, what does 2012 hold for you and me? It’s a time of revolution in how we relate to each other. It’s the year to speak your truth online and on the streets. Who do we need to be? Human beings who are authentic, vulnerable and present. In 2012, I will be there with you.
Vicky Thompson is the editor of New Connexion.