When did we become a Matrix generation? Buying into some alternate online world to fill our bellies and deliver us from this life…from living?

Technology can be the foundation on which we crumble, or we can cut loose the chords that entangle us and wake up.

Don’t get me wrong. The first thing I reach for in the morning is my phone, as if, I have missed some monumental moment while I slept. Such an addictive trap when the moments, I miss, we miss, are the ones in front of us.

“Fake Book” and twitter and Instagram and snapchat will not grant you your heart’s desires, but they might just hand you over. There is nothing and no one more important that the person in front of you. And perhaps instead of posting our “perfectly poised pictures” we should post that picture when we first wake up, or better yet, not post a picture at all but live the moment.

All the days of your life do not need to be documented for the world to see. Your social media sites should not be your diary. And heaven forbid if you think friendships and deep, meaningful relationships are formed on line…they’re not.

There is no substitute for face to face interaction and conversation. Ideas spring from them: connections, loyalties, mercy, courage and companionship. A whole list of intangibles that cannot be captured in a snapshot.

So I challenge you—I challenge me—to pick up a pen instead of a phone, to lunch with a friend instead of texting, to give them a hug instead of a virtual heart.

It’s a start.

Here’s to unplugging. Here’s to seeing and meeting you. The real you!

Happy New Year!