My 77 year old Mother, just traveled to her hometown, in which she lived over 55 years back, and went back to visit once a few years, maybe for a few days each.  When I spoke to her, what struck me was the details she could narrate about each phase of her life, reminiscing her younger days, the people there, specifically, with their names even if they were briefly associated with her and her family, with incidents and anecdotes. And she also told me that it is important to keep recollecting old things to one’s mind ‘sharp’! 😊

It got me wondering if I remember such details about my own childhood, or  would they have already dissipated?! Probably until my parents’ generation, the world was a bit smaller, they had to worry about their daily lives and the near future. Their lives revolved more around daily routines, immediate relatives, their children’s future and planning etc.,   Maybe there was no information overload which allowed them to store what was most significant to their lives at different stages of their lives.  Maybe they had/have more peaceful lives…

Wondering if getting the world, literally, into our hands and absorbing all that is going on around the globe, real time, is helping us in any way except giving us more anxiety and perhaps hopelessness in a way. On one side there is news overload and on the other social media ‘influence’ overdrive!!  Of course we are overwhelmed and there is only so much our poor brain can take, process and store, perhaps.

Another fallout of too much digitization it seems, we are losing human to human connections and strong bonds.  We don’t seem to need people as much as we need our gadgets.

But I am optimistic that things will go a full circle and come back to value humanity and human relationships.  After all, we are what we are because of the emotions and feelings we have for one another, and memories are stored in our hearts and minds more than on memory cards!