Chill Pill

We could all do with being a little nicer and more relaxed and I find that retiring has made me realized how much I needed to work on this. The daily stress of fast-paced life now produces people who are constantly on alert largely through a digital connectedness which is unrelenting. The emails, text messages and social media posts pour in without mercy and we never get a respite.

I don't doubt for a moment that our quality of life has been bettered by technology and yet we are more impatient and easily rattled when things don't work as fast as they are supposed to. Some teachers are already complaining about generation Alpha's entitlement which they say is replete with snarky attitudes and lack of manners in the classroom. Maybe it's because we expect everything to work to our liking lest we become irritable.

I ride the metro and almost everyone has nose buried in a device which we can almost consider an extension of our anatomy (no doubt that's next) and I almost wouldn't mind if we found a way to roll back the clock and figure out ways to get our innocence back without necessarily returning to our old rotary phones.

Maybe a massive dose of societal chill pill.