Tweeting with the Grain

If Hopeless was a time and place, Now could be a contender.
Amongst this massive info age, we’re overwhelmed, we surrender…
To an indulgence of convenience, a world ahead my muzzle.
But wait, the world: one dimension less, a piece gone from the puzzle.
We chit, we chat, we chirp, we tweet, how could we be disconnected?
Our touch turned deaf, our bones turned stone, how do we resurrect it?

If Hopeless was a time and place, then Then has just survived.
Pray not, he said, for an easy life, but for strength you can contrive.
But what of those who cannot pray, don’t know what they would ask for?
‘Cause everyday, we accept we’re prey to Disconnect in the mirror.
Without a doubt, we stand alive: we use, we trudge, we grind
But are we truly living, if we fail to ask: what is it we want with our time?

If Hopeless is a time and place, is Next the last to fall?
A dynasty of civilizations, defeated and appalled…
That to feel a moment they say is worthwhile, is arduous and slow?
How -and why- with what I desire, to not take but instead forgo?
That Meaning and Fulfillment beget themselves with labour and with pain.
Perhaps Next is when we recognize, it’s time to go against the grain.

Birds recorded by Andrea Wong at Berry Point.
Voice of Google Vertex Text-to-Speech AI, English - Male, English - Female.
Processed audio texts from 1) “Social Media and Empathy Around the Globe” by Alison Jane Martingano, published by The Society for Personality and Social Psychology on March 3, 2023. Accessed at https://spsp.org/news/character-and-context-blog/martingano-social-media-use-lower-empathy.

2) Abstract of “Empathy, narcissism, alexithymia, and social media use.” Martingano, A. J., Konrath, S., Zarins, S., & Okaomee, A. A. (2022). Empathy, narcissism, alexithymia, and social media use. Psychology of Popular Media, 11(4), 413–422. Accessed at https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000419.