Hearing the Cries of the World Through Our Screens
November 15, 2023
We are all aware of how tragic life is — continual war, death, grief. Like the bodhisattva Quan Yin, we’re hearing the cries of those all around the world. What a helpless, heartbreaking feeling this can be.
For the first time in our human history, we are experiencing amplified suffering through the lens of our phones. The pandemic, politics, violence, shootings… the list goes on. We’re exposed and consuming more information outside of ourselves than ever before while navigating our daily lives the best we know how.
Research continues to reveal in the US, the more we’re on social media, the more we’re decreasing our empathy and compassion. It’s been proven the less we’re interacting and connecting to others in real life — the more apathetic we can become and in extreme cases, life-threatening to others. Maybe for some of us, our empathy has increased to the point of fatigue.
It’s been disheartening to listen and witness those around me share their grief stemming from social media during a time where there is already so much pain and suffering. The increased bullying, cancel culture, hate, judgment, policing, and righteousness continues to grow. These are the ingredients to more violence, polarization, and war.
How do we treat others who are not showing up on their personal online spaces exactly as we want them to? Are we only able to experience each other in fractured digital forms — like posted snippets of a book where the whole message is lost in translation?
This is an opportunity to evolve beyond narrow points of views, to expand beyond our haunting echo chambers, to remember the whole multifaceted nature of each other. At the face of grief, loss, and death — can we give each other more space to the many different expressions? Can we remember that each of us may process these experiences at different speeds, tempos, and rhythms as we’re navigating the many layers of our individual and collective experiences? You never know what someone is going through and our inner landscapes can be complex, messy, crippling. We’re doing the best we know how. To add fuel to a world that is already on fire, must we continue to push each other into the flames?
Social media is a mirror reflecting our humanity back to us in each moment. What I see is that so many of us could benefit from integrating the complexities of our modern world by getting back into our bodies, experience more of each other offline, commune with nature, take action towards tending to our wounds.
Radically caring for ourselves during this time so we can better care for each other is vital. It’s not sustainable otherwise. More pain will create more pain. More care will create more care. Your wellbeing matters and it impacts everyone around us, near or far. Turn towards the tools, practices, resources, and people that will help you along the way.
From my beating heart,
Mangda
