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