Less screen time, more face-to-face time

New Year's resolutions with respect to smoking, diet and exercise are prevalent. Unfortunately if the statics are correct, most of us fall off the resolution wagon by midJanuary.

There are holdouts until February, and some (few) actually succeed.

We all start with good intentions, but as they say, the road to the nether world is paved with those.

I hope some of you will join me in my resolution. It will take some effort as the net is so easy and quick. I know you hear this too: “Check out our website at www. yada-ya-ya, like us on facebook, follow our twitter feed," but if you do not have access to the internet, do not have a computer or you really do not want this in your life, you are going to have a problem – particularly with government and public services.

Somehow during a power failure, I find it galling to hear “check the outage map” on a website. Even smart phones need to be charged.

Then there is the issue of personal contact. Increasingly we have become a society reliant on faceless email or interactive websites. Personal touches like the smile, handwritten note, the handshake or the hug are being replaced by the ‘like’, the e-card and short predictive typed text messages.

Even though I have computer skills, I still like the ‘hard copy.’ I love turning the pages on a newspaper laid out on the table before me, holding a real card or letter, looking at a picture on the wall, not on a screen.

Mental health experts all agree that real interactive social contact decreases stress, reduces anxiety, mitigates aggression and positively effects physical health and well being. Again, I am going to fall back on a clipping that I found in a Christmas card from my aunt to our family. I have changed the year but the sentiment is appropriate. In 2020 “we will open the new book with blank pages that we get to write ourselves. The title of the book is opportunity and chapter one starts with New Year's Day. Generally speaking, as we look back on life, our greatest remorse comes not from the things we did, but from the things we didn’t do that we should have done. Others rarely hurt us as deeply as we hurt ourselves. Sometimes the pain comes, not from foolish things we did or said, but from a time when we could have shown kindness but didn’t, when we could have shown mercy but were harsh instead, when we could have reached out to someone in need but turned and walked away.”

This year let’s resolve to be more aware of the people in our lives. To be more positive. To make an effort to actually talk/listen to others, visit those who are alone and be present in a real sense, not just in cyberspace.

The internet will cross the miles, but so will a card or letter. Even with the cost of stamps it will be a tangible memento for the recipient like the weathered clipping above.

Happy New Year!