Life is strange, especially for women/moms I think. We invest so much time in homemaking, raising children, etc. We pour out so much of ourselves in to others and then all of a sudden, one day, they’ve moved on and there you…
I am glad I went to school when I did even if I didn’t compete it right away. I’m
thankful I can pick up where I left off and even change career paths. I’m thankful that ALL of my experiences as a homemaker and a mother really do transfer into career skills.
One area of interest for me is life coaching and mentoring with a focus on human connection and relations. I noticed something with my mother as her Alzheimer’s progressed. She was very connected to her phone a LOT. The more the disease progressed and the less she was realistically interacting with people I noticed what she was doing was paying attention to emails and social media and the TV as if she was interacting with real people (I remember how heartbreaking this was to witness).
I believe in her mind this felt like connecting with people. The only problem was that a majority of the time those emails were automated and the social media interaction was very shallow (likes, hearts, etc).
I believe as her disease progressed her confidence in communicating in real time and in person greatly diminished, possibly due to a lack of practice. This created a spiral effect, I believe, in the progression of the disease.
Statistics show that people who are depressed and/or lonely have a 2.4% increased potential for Alzheimer’s. Similarly, those whose screen time is high also greatly increase their likelihood of having Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
We’re seeing this phenomenon with the elderly and the young. While social media has benefits, it also is creating severe problems for the human mind and heart.
I remember trying to encourage my mother to let us take her to a community center for a few hours for fellowship several times a week. She always refused. I believe she had lost her confidence in human interaction outside of the family. Even with family, she increasingly interacted less and less.
Nursing homes do their best but I believe they can do better in providing engaging opportunities and therapy for Alzheimer’s and Dementia patience. (My mother was home with us.)
I know this is long, I’m just thinking through some things.
Perhaps we can all do better with intentional human interaction?
Perhaps we can all do better in caring for our loved ones and each other?
Perhaps we can use social media as a starting point and a catalyst to actually engage in person?
So many people are so lonely and many people haven’t had the opportunity to learn effective communication, especially this latest generation.
The human heart and spirit neee and thrive on human connection. God designed us this way.
Many Europeans and Middle Easterners tell me one of the main things they dislike about American culture is the lack of a sense of community and relationship. They say we’re too focused on work and things. I agree.
Let’s fix that!
Let’s be Global Agents of Change for human connection!
Global Agents of Change
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