The one thing I missed dearly in COVID in 2020
If there’s one thing COVID makes me crave, it is that spark, ignite, or that human connection you have when you are in the flow conversing with someone.
A few days ago, I was super excited to have a conversation with someone I looked up to. I’d heard him speak on Clubhouse, resonated with what he had to say, and went in search to find him on Instagram. And to my surprise, he followed me back and started messaging me.
I was thrilled beyond imagination.
I was excited to converse and exchange ideas with him until I realized it wasn’t him I was conversing with. I was either speaking to a very smart team or a bot with a carefully crafted script. It really affected me on a deeper level.
Are we really that busy that we need to delegate conversations?
Or are conversations a thing of the past and we are on our path to becoming one bot speaking to another?
A few weeks back when I asked people on Instagram, what do they crave most and are missing in their lives? Not surprisingly, the answer was – connection. We are not permitted to socialize to the extent we used to (which was also deplorably superficial, to begin with). The only respite we had was technology helped us to still have conversations.
But the more I speak to bots, the more I’m afraid. All of us at some level hold the need to belong somewhere or someplace or with someone. We need to feel heard, held, loved and respected. Or maybe I’m an old soul in a 28-year-old body cursing a generation that’s slowly moving to a path of no return?
But you have to admit, there’s magic in the human connection.
When you see the eyes of another sparkle at something you said that resonated with them. When you connect on such a level that the passing of time becomes irrelevant. When you crack up and end up laughing uncontrollably in public regardless of social etiquette. When you have a conversation from the heart, ones where it feels like souls are speaking to each other. Where we set aside all those pieces of baggage of who we are supposed to be, the identities, and responsibilities we came to carry as time went along, and connect as equals. That’s the kind of connection I crave – real, honest, vulnerable, heart-felt, soulful, and open conversations.
We have such connections and conversations with the Being Meraklis Fam regularly. Comment below or write to me at shwetha.sivaraman@beingmeraklis.com to know about our next gathering.
