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The Dying Art of Laughter
If you watch someone laughing out loud, you feel their energy, a positivity that reverberates through you and it’s bound to make you laugh or smile.
Laughter is one of nature’s mechanisms to boost a flow of hormones that is required for a healthy body and mind. It is like the CTRL ALT DELETE of the human mind, that allows you to escape from whatsoever programs that are malfunctioning in you.
There was a time when laughing records used to be popular. You play the record that had someone laughing and you would find yourself laughing at the end of it.
How did it work? How does just listening to someone laugh make you laugh? It’s not important, but what’s important is that laughing would change your mood and also make others around you happy. It just instantly changes the vibe of the place.
The other day I cracked a joke and someone said — lol. They didn’t laugh, they just said lol. So I asked her — didn’t you find it funny and she replied it was so funny that she said lols and not lol. It wasn’t the first time someone had said — lol.
But it occurred to me that this GenZ is missing out on simple joys.
In today’s world, there are more pressures, there are more choices and on top of that we are not expressing ourselves completely. Hows that gonna pan out?
People are shutting down to laughing. "Laughing" of all the things they could have chosen to shut themselves to. When we do that we are bound to feel less invigorated, less happy, less productive, less motivated, less everything except feelings of low life state. It’s no wonder that mental health has gone for a toss and people feel more anxious and depressed due to the overuse of smartphones.
Texting has taken over the world. It’s the preferred form of communication for many and the only form of communication of some.
Texting is in essence, the communist of the Communication World. Just think about it. They have taken the fun out of sharing a joke as well.
The even bigger problem is that Texting has got out of the phones and has infected the way people behave.
Everywhere you go you can find people with necks down, busying their thumbs like miniature people on Just Dance. Be it the subway, the cafes, the restaurants, parks, on the road, anywhere you go, you will find majority of people texting away like bots. The funny thing is that even when people are out in groups you still see them, engrossed in their worlds. Somebody had rightly said the world is in your hands but I bet that person never imagined it like this.
There are so many addictions and afflictions that have come up in this new age. And unlike the addictions of 60s and 70s these are not giving you an expanded experience rather they are offering you a limiting experience. Texting thumb or Smartphone Thumb is a real deal where the tendons get swollen and the skin around the thumb gets numb. Its hard to believe but tweens are suffering it the most. At an age when they are supposed to be living, laughing and crying, they are holing themselves up in little devices that’s painful to watch literally.
Ever since the pandemic last year the colleges and schools have been operating online, the communication between teachers and students too has shifted on messaging apps. A cousin of mine is often seen texting his teachers about his doubts like many of his peers. The teachers too, find it convenient to address more students on chat.
In fact, that’s how it began, texting was easy for anybody. From the fewer confident to the I couldn’t care-less ones, from the talking-to-several-people at once to the introverts, texting has been a boon for them all. It was soon enough that Texting or chatting evolved its own language, to quicken the pace and lessen the effort involved. The phone companies started devising apps that help you type faster and suggest words before you have completed typing them. They are sort of even thinking for you at times.
Texting is becoming a norm as the mainstay of communication for not just your casual chit chat but also becoming rather popular in the office culture. Talking to Ambika, a senior executive working in a cyber security firm (she is my childhood friend, i added the credentials so that what I have to say is taken a little more seriously) she says,— “ most people working under me communicate on whats app. Whats funny is that they even avoid calling the client and end up saying I had texted them but they haven’t replied yet. I have to remind them time and again that you have to make calls to the client.”
Even when the communication was on phone calls, a lot could be felt and expressed as the voice carried your energy. But over the chat messengers, it has been diminished next to negligible. in fact, it has the opposite effect where so many misunderstandings arise because people can’t guess each other’s tone.
Because is communication just about words? No! It has been well researched that 80% of communication is done by the body and only 20% of it is verbal.
Chatting or texting is then only 20% of communication. Where does the rest 80% of it then go?
Perhaps someone would argue that we have emoticons now. Those poor little yellow bastards with round faces stuck in their emotions for all eternity to feel only one thing. The sad smiley is forever sad and the happy smiley is forever happy. These poor chappies are supposed to help put across the tone of your voice and your feelings.
But can that sad face smiley have the same effect as watching your friend sad?
How can the effect of a hale and hearty laugh on a mind and body be the same as a lol typed with an emoticon with tears in eyes ?
Is it because people don’t want to indulge in it? Is it because we find it tedious to communicate with each other?
It can be overwhelming to see someone cry or difficult to express anger openly. Texting is fairly simple that way. It helps people avoid being face to face. It helps people avoid being involved. But is that the kind of relation we want to build?
And then what are we really communicating — that we don’t have time to listen, to express; that we don’t have time for communication or,
that we also don’t have time to feel…
Most people like to text because they can text more people simultaneously as it requires less attention and you can convey your thoughts to more people.
Your thoughts mind you.. not your feelings!
And whats this time saved being used for? To text more people ..
because we are all driven by FOMO — FEAR OF MISSING OUT. It has to be the lamest form of fear. It’s such a lame fear that it has a stupid abbreviation.
It’s a frenzy where the brain wants everything. But in doing so it’s not even able to get one thing and enjoy it completely.
There is no harm in words getting replaced, it happens all the time. Ask Shakespeare he would tell thou. It has been happening ever since language formed. But this is the first time that words are replacing feelings. Imagine somebody saying lol after watching a comedy of errors.
One of the biggest assets we human beings had, was the ability to look up at the night sky. Our ancestors looked up at the infinite space and wondered about life and existence and that created civilization. We imagined and felt things, and so strongly that we created language to communicate those feelings to others.
But now we are heading to a place we might have the language but not those feelings and that wonder.
When words start to replace feelings then it means we are preventing ourselves from the experiences of being a human.
It’s a harsh truth and maybe not many would like to agree to it but truth doesn’t care about whether you agree to it or not. That’s why the truth is harsh. It doesn’t care what you think. But If you look closely, you are bound to discover it for yourself. That would again require looking up first.
So next time you find yourself typing lol. Pause.
There’s no hurry.
Enjoy the moment first, mull over it.
And when you have really laughed out loud.
Only then type lol, otherwise don’t.
Some useful habits to improve communication :
- Limit your time of texting.
- Turn off the Notifications.
- Keep a limited circle of friends and speak to these people often.
- Remember to Laugh
