Let's get real folks.
I got to tell you something especially with the holidays just passed.
Get off of Facebook, Twitter, and all the other social media things and start connecting with the real world today.
My birthday was a few days ago and I was happy. It was great, I enjoyed it. It was fun, but it was a series of texts, non-step tweets, and Facebook posts of Happy Birthday. And I appreciate all that, don't get me wrong, I really do. A lot of acquaintances wished me a happy. An old friend that I haven't spoken to in a long time wished me a happy birthday on Facebook, and I appreciated it immensely.
I think it's fantastic that old friends and acquaintances are thinking about you on your special day. But I had people close to me text and tweet me instead of picking up the phone!
Come on, are you kidding me? This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever experienced in my entire life. We've become so social media reliant even people we're close to now only send us Facebook messages on our birthday.
And we've become such a disconnected society. We've become lazy. We've become dependent on technology. We no longer pick up the phone because we feel someone's not going to answer. We no longer leave personal voicemails. Voicemails are so personal. You can hear voice tone and excitement in someone's voice.
We've become a society that's so reliant on technology we've forgotten how to communicate with each other.
I'm going to go even deeper into this. I was in line at my favorite restaurant the other night. There were five people in the line. Every single one was on their iPhone. Not one person talking to or connecting with anyone there in front of them. Everybody was single. There wasn't one wedding ring on anybody's hand. Everybody was tweeting, reading Facebook posts or texting somebody, probably talking about how they're not meeting anybody. How can you meet people if you don't ever raise your eyes off your phone?
The people behind the register could give us the wrong change when we pay for all we know, just because we don't pay attention to what they're doing.
We've disconnected so much with everything. We have relied on our phones, and I got to give the phone companies AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Boost Mobile a huge amount of credit.
I have to give congrats to the iPhone, the Blackberry, the Samsung S3, and the HTC.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have all done an amazing job. You guys are geniuses, you really are. You have taught us how to rely on you, and how to make love to you with our eyes every single day.
Technology has made the world simpler. We now no longer need to talk to people. And it suits many of us because so many people have social phobias they don't want to talk to people anyway. Most people are too shy. Most people are afraid to get deeper and connect.
We need to stop. We need to have one day a week where we just put these things down and start connecting properly again. We need to set a new rule. No phones after 8:00 p.m. Connect with your kids, connect with your mother, connect with your friends, and talk to people face-to-face.
And what I'm about to tell you is no joke.
I've been with women and we've had great sex. We've really connected and got close. I get up to brush my teeth, and when I come back into bed there they are, checking Twitter feeds or reading an e-mail.
You want to talk about disconnecting from the moment?
Picking up your phone after the most intimate, beautiful moment between two lovers? Do you know what that's like? Do you know what that makes the other person feel like? Really? You can't stay present in this moment? You need to bring other energy in there? You need to check your Gmail and see who has e-mailed you at 11:30 at night on a Tuesday?
You need to read your Twitter feeds? A bunch of useless sentences from people you don't even correspond or talk to, or maybe you need to know who re-tweeted your brilliant statement from four hours ago.
What we've created is absolute madness!
We've allowed other people to dictate our lives.
How many of you go out and check your e-mails, your Facebook, or anything else at the strangest hours? You're about to fall asleep and you think to yourself, "let me check my e-mail one more time."
Why? We used to go into the office at 8:00, 8:30, or 9:00, and we used to have a pile of while-you-were-out messages. We used to get back to those people. We still made money. We still enjoyed ourselves. We have to go back to when it was simple. We need to not have our phones rule us.
We need to be not ruled by social networks. We need to go out there and actually connect to the world around us. Technology has made our life easier, but it's stopped us from connecting.
You make love to your lover and leave the room for two minutes to get water, or to go to the bathroom, and you're massaging your iPhone and reading tweets.
Everybody should join in. No phones after 8:00 at night. When you're out with a group of friends, connect with them. Connect with who they are. Connect with the moment. Get more present in your life.
We've become a disposable society; a society where relationships are no longer important. We basically use people as we use phones. We have one year contracts. It's time for us to really connect again because the world is becoming a disconnected place, right when we need each other most.