Transcript

Lost In An Isolated World | Zusi Inegbeniki | TEDxYouth@Croydon

we live in a world of approximately 7 billion people that means we live in a world of approximately 14 billion hands every day we Face problem after problem and in search for a helping hand we forget how many there are some say our problems could be solved by someone we don't know but how would we know if we don't talk to people we don't know once our closest friends want strangers to we isolate ourselves piercing our eyes to our phone screens on our mouths sealed by fear of communication we use iPods and iPads to replace I love yous losing the ability to look each other in the eye you replace face to face conversations with half faed pictures face times cropping out the true beauty of a connected conversation I'm simply scared that technology will take over connectivity will fall to ashes isolation will take over I'm scared because we're in a generation that cannot hold a conversation because we're Blinded By the Light of our Google Map destinations we won't look left we won't look right cuz we think the right path is only in the light of technology and we won't realize realiz we're looking the wrong way till Google says no available connections now ask a person for directions I believe we need to connect and fix our well together by not relying on the illusional web of social media to connect us instead we can physically connect Inspire the people around us and as a result solve each other's problems over the summer I spent a few weeks at the University of columia through this experience I was inspired by a man let me introduce you to Maxwell buron Maxwell I met at a bus stop had a story to tell me and I was so inspired by talking to this man I had never met before that I decided to share this with you today for 18 years of his life Maxwell was a skateboarding Legend his flips and tricks couldn't be challenged by anyone he told me he dreamed of one day becoming a professional skateboarder yet unfortunately one day when maxw and his friends were just about to leave the skate park Max said and I quote wait just one more trick that day Maxwell lost his footing and suffered severe injuries what touched me the most was that his dreams of being a professional skateboarder when definitely put on hold by just one more trick he told me he was tempted to Simply give up I could see he was made for nothing else so Maxwell went to college then dropped out 2 months later because he had no more money then Maxwell most of you may have had two or three jobs while Maxwell has had 15 and he now drives taxis around New York and New Jersey yet despite hardships he still still has hopes of one day becoming a professional skateboarder now I didn't read about marxel Bing through Google I didn't stumble upon his digital profile on Facebook or even discover his inspiring Twitter page the reality was I didn't need to read some article on BuzzFeed on how to overcome my challenges I was given guidance by a man at a bus stop he simply shared his story to me and a door was opened up maxel encouraged me to keep going when times got rough to have dreams even thing when things weren't looking great and he inspired me to follow my passion some of you may have had passions the truth is is Maxwell gave me guidance even though I had never met him before we talked for approximately only 4 minutes and 40 seconds and here I am telling you how much he changed my life go out in the world and find someone you can Inspire or someone that can inspire you can Inspire I want to tell you today that technology we have despite its intricacy this worldwide web we are not truly connected first on a global scale then in our friendship and in family groups and finally in ourselves to explain the global divide I want to tell you a story I'm taking you back to my year right every day I sat beside a girl called Allison every day Ali stared at me she swayed from side to side and leaned in as if she was trying to read through my soul or something one day after many many embarrassing months Allison decided to talk to me where you from she asked being of British nationality I was confused but accepting that my skin didn't look like her I said to her I must be a foreigner I gave her the answer she wanted to hear my family's originally Nigerian I said you would never believe what she said next do you live near any Lions do zeas just walk along the road in Nigeria can you take baby giraffes as pets she went on as you can expect I decided to change seats because every day her strange questions made me so upset but when I look back on it now I know I can't blame her as individuals of different backgrounds like ourselves it was hard to connect to understand each other she believed Africa was simply Wildlife because she had never been able to connect to an African's world like many other people and no matter how connected we think Snapchat World stories are making us we mistaken even the technology we see as The Binding force is mistaken I said search Europe to find big buildings bright lights and even money but when I search Africa I find only Safari but I think to myself there's more to Africa than just that this just proves that we can't connect to another culture without physically trying to but why do we need to connect take this Beyond an African and a European in the light of recent events adapt this to any divide our world today be it World Nations be it a personal conflict in your life or even religions that just won't agree the truth is listening to the stories and voices of other people makes us more sympathetic more understanding and as a result we can solve each other's conflicts every day our world faces conflicts every day you face conflicts with people in your lives have you ever stopped to think maybe is because we just don't understand each other it just might be that the answer to even wild peace is simply communication now I want to tell you about the issue of connectivity in our families and friends a few months ago I went out for dinner with my family we had ordered food and so we waited soon my brother started typing away at his phone then my sister my cousin my aunt my uncle and soon even myself suddenly I remembered to tell everyone about this exciting Ted X talk I was going to to do so I broke free from my isolation turned to my aunt and said I completely forgot to tell you in a few weeks I'm going to the Brit school you know how I she wasn't paying attention she was lost in the isolated World her phone created so I stopped talking soon our food came then my cousin turns to me and goes stop don't eat let's take a picture I smiled as my cousin and I were about to share a connected moment to my astonishment she shov me off my seat sits down raises her arms and clicks would you believe she took a picture of my spaghetti instead of a us that was my second moment of realizing that connectivity had not only been affected in my world but in my family our families the most connected Community we have but most importantly this issue of connectivity affects you excessive use of phones means there's no need to develop skills of face to communication I want to introduce you to Dena Dena suffers from severe social anxiety her mom Maurice used to give her exercises on how to improve her communication she tell us to say hello wave goodbye and when asked how are you to tell the truth every time I saw little Dena she did just that hello goodbye I'm not that great today not in that order but yeah she was improving but one day Dina got a f and when I asked how are you she simply Shrugged one in six people today will suffer from some form of social anxiety this is much more than ever before and the story with Dina proves that technology doesn't solve the problem it only avoids it so what happens tomorrow if it's all gone who' you turn to then you may be the bridge you may be the answer someone out there has the answer to your problems but you will never know whose world you can change or who can change your world if you don't talk to people around you my challenge to you is this take one hour out of your day when you shut down all technology and just live take a walk with a family member to reconnect and for your sake do not worry about the Twitter updates you're missing out on when you're not online spend time thinking verbally communicating and developing you schedule coffee with that intimidating colleague talk to that guy at the bus stop and by dropping our phones smiling and saying hello we will be open to a world we didn't know finally here's my piece titled when aliens hear about our technology so my alien friend Angie asked me how many friends I have so I said 10 really good friends nine I talk to all the time eight I can relate to seven surely six I pray for every day five remember when I came alive four but trust me it's more like three I'm sorry two Andie just one I really care about but I'm not alone I have over 700 friends on Facebook so she asked but how could these both be true I had to tell her the truth I could see on her face the contemplation confusion so I told her social media is all an illusion it paints of face over crying faces of exclusion bustles up complex emotions into frozen yellow faces we call emoticons because we can't communicate to people anymore but we notice signs we know if people don't like our photos they don't like us so we run into hide undercover photos cuz they don't need to like the patterns we show on those we can't explain our feelings anymore so we need a device before we walk out the door so prepare Angie device in hand block out the world with your favorite band can't look into eyes anymore look to the floor anxiety rising in my body scratch that in our world body can't rely on telling our problems to mommy daddy or Society so we upload posts onto social sites we nor run by the exact same Society you have to understand Angie we're just the world of paranoid people self-medicating on technology but it makes me sad because we're in a generation that cannot hold a conversation because we're Blinded By the Light of our Google Map destination Angie we won't look left we won't look right cuz we think the right path is only in the light of Technology and we won't realize we're looking the wrong way till Google says no available connections now ask a person for directions you may be the bridge you may be the answer and someone out there has the answer to your problems but you will never know whose world you can change or who can change your world if you don't talk to people around you thank you