Shifting Dynamics 0.1: The Social Network
By: Sherief Shahin
Tags: People, Social, Lifestyle

Red Carpet

First off, welcome. This is the first part of my mini-blog series and I am extremely excited about writing this whole series, but especially this one. I hope you are as excited to read about it as well.

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, this series will be exploring some new personal truths that I have come to believe in more and more during this time of the pandemic. Whether you agree or disagree with them, I want you to take this opportunity to examine the points I bring up and use it as a spark to ignite a newfound willingness to look at things from a different perspective.

I realized that the most important aspect I rely on in my day to day activities is social interaction. Whether it’s my personal life or work life, social interactions play a big part in both. So, normally, the first thing I started to think about during this spare time, is just that. Here were my thoughts on it.

Humans Are Social By Nature

I have always heard the statement “Humans are social animals”. It’s always been an expression that eluded me and I was never able to fully understand it. So I looked into exactly what this expression means and whether or not I think it applies to our current world.

When I looked more into it, I finally came to a conclusion for my unified definition of the term. My understanding of humans being social animals is as follows:

Human’s survival depends on other‘s lives. Not only do we live amongst humans, but we also live through them. Through their experiences, through their ups, their downs, but most importantly, through their emotions

With that definition in mind, I had no doubt that we are in fact social animals. Whatever happens around us, we always find a way to revert back to our instinctual social nature, even if it is for the mere fact of continuing to live vicariously through others. I mention all this for the sole reason of establishing solid ground for what’s to come next, the essence, and quite frankly, the reason for this entire series, the Revelations.

Revelations

The truth of the matter is, that even tho we are social animals by nature, we were kept apart. But we were kept apart by life, even before being kept apart by this pandemic. I took a second to look back at my life and realized the number of distractions it has thrown my way that has hindered me from reaching my full social potential.

I recalled times where I would miss going out to watch the sunset with friends, just to finish an inconsequential college assignment. Other times I would miss a late night by a bonfire, just because I had to wake up early for practice the next day. In a nutshell, I prioritized tangible achievements and instant gratitude, over permanent, long-lasting Kodak moments. Don’t get me wrong, aspects like sports and studying have been a defining pillar for where I am today. But to what extent should we uphold them at the cost of slowly losing human interactions?

With all of this in mind, I looked at the previous months. Even though at first I began to think that this would only mean less social interactions, I was proven completely wrong. Because we were put in a position where we felt the need to overcompensate the distance apart, so we improvised. Game nights started happening over websites, nights out were turned into late-night skype calls filled with the same shenanigans we would usually talk about when we all would meet each other, even people who have not talked for years started to re-connect for the sole purpose of making sure they are doing well and staying safe.

So if everything seems to be the same, what difference has it made? The small difference, the only difference is, we weren’t thinking about “other” stuff. We were not thinking about what train we would take back home. We were not thinking whether or not we were going to find a table at the restaurant we were going to. We were just thinking about the moments spent together. The now. But what about the moments we didn’t spend interacting with each other?

In the moments where we were not connected, minor things we used to think about were replaced with other more important things. Important things that are… human. Some people started to pick up a passion project that they have been putting aside for a while. Other people started reading more about things they have always wanted to learn about. For some, this pandemic became a pivotal moment in their life that enabled them to help others in living an equally just and comfortable life.

We grew stronger, we became more aware, and as humans, we got closer than we ever were when we used to see each other face to face.

What Does the Future Hold?

We stay the same. We have seen the amount of social potential that we can achieve. Not just that, we have also witnessed incredible moments of humans supporting humans, uplifting them, and having their back. Let’s not go back to the way things were, where we were consumed by all of life’s distractions. Imagine the possibilities of a world where we prioritize social interactions, but this time around, we can actually see each other face to face. Endless.

So, go watch that sunset with your buddies. Go to that barbeque with your colleagues. Go out with your friend that you haven’t seen in a long time. Learn to play that violin. Pick up your passion project. Whatever you do, let’s start putting people first. So, take a step back, make some memories, connect with people on a human level, because at the end of the day you can always catch the next train, but you can never re-live a moment in time.

The Final Twenty

So, the long-awaited final twenty. What is it? The final twenty is my way of wrapping everything up in exactly twenty words. It started off as a challenge I made to myself to be able to write an article that could be summarised in only twenty words. It means that I was able to revolve my entire article around one singular theme. So, without further ado, The Social Networks Final Twenty: