Every time I check my HN karma count it reminds me of this passage from Awareness by Anthony de Mello:
> Most
people don't live aware lives. They live mechanical lives, mechanical
thoughts - generally somebody else's - mechanical emotions,
mechanical actions, mechanical reactions.
> Do you want to see how mechanical you really are? "My, that's a
lovely shirt you're wearing". You feel good hearing that. For a shirt,
for heaven's sake! You feel proud of yourself when you hear that.
> Normally the way it goes, I press a button and
you're up; I press another button and you're down.
On social media we let others push the up/down buttons - and we feel happy, sad, proud, ashamed from that
> Most people don't live aware lives. They live mechanical lives, mechanical thoughts - generally somebody else's - mechanical emotions, mechanical actions, mechanical reactions.
> Do you want to see how mechanical you really are? "My, that's a lovely shirt you're wearing". You feel good hearing that. For a shirt, for heaven's sake! You feel proud of yourself when you hear that.
> Normally the way it goes, I press a button and you're up; I press another button and you're down.
On social media we let others push the up/down buttons - and we feel happy, sad, proud, ashamed from that