Jan 30 2021
A virus never lies. It wants to reproduce, mutate, update its genetic code. It will exploit another organism to do so.
But a lot of people lie. And they lie about viruses. And these people also exploit other organisms.
I keep wondering when the awakening will really take off. When enough people dare to think independently, dare to stand up and realize there is only one way to deal with life (and that involves the whole living planet): with love and respect.
Industry-sponsored events, products, media and governments do not act out of love and respect and they don’t have your best interest at heart. Money is the driving force. Nothing else.
It is time to stop being the gullible fool.
Do you think all these measures (muzzles, lockdowns, curfews, distancing, locking children up, prevent socializing etc…) are taken because the governments have your best interest at heart? Governments are puppets on a string. They often come across clueless to me. Even when politicians sometimes see the light, they are afraid to lose face. It is nothing but a McNamarian play. Like Robert McNamara pulled off during the Vietnam war. Pay more attention to history, please.
What is this rush for a vaccine for a virus that has a lower IFR than the flu? Remember deformations in children? Direct result of the exuberant use of DDT. Heck, it was so wonderful to use this bug killing toxin they even sprayed people with it!! With compliments of the government of course. So yeah, why not come up with a vaccine for a virus …they called the virus "polio" and look! The deformations stopped happening! Maybe because they stopped using DDT? We have been taken for a fool many many times… we still are... In a lot of ways.
Sars-cov-2 is an endemic, airborne, fast mutating RNA virus. No vaccine is gonna kill it. Like influenza, the best way to deal with it is to reach herd immunity fast (so rather encourage the spread among 99% of the population and protect the 1%) so no "ugly" mutations can arise and it goes to sleep for a while.
BTW:
when I have a snotty nose I don’t go and visit and hug grandma in the nursing home… that is common sense.
Washing hands with soap serves one purpose: getting rid of dirt (not bacteria or viruses, they are left on doorhandles or your towels)
I used to travel a lot, was in several airports in short periods of time, especially in wintertime when rhino- , covid- and flu viruses thrive… and I am like most people asymptomatic because my system can deal very well with these viruses. I hugged and kissed and hung around many people in my incubation periods… no one ever died! Asymptomatic people do NOT have the viral load of symptomatic people and it happens to be proven for this SARS-COV-2 one: Cao S, Gan Y, Wang C et al. "Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China." Nature Comm 2020;11(5917)
"Compared with symptomatic patients, asymptomatic infected persons generally have low quantity of viral loads and a short duration of viral shedding, which decrease the transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2." Thanks to Pam Popper for sharing this in her Newsletter. (Tip: you should listen to intelligent women like Pam more often, it benefits you in many ways)
We are merely living a scenario. We are muzzled and divided. We are being lied to on a daily basis using controlled media and fear to constrain us. This is the perfect recipe for oppression. People are obeying to absolute NONSENSE! Out of fear and because they feel they need to choose sides. Yes it always works- the divide and conquer principle. Pay more attention to your history classes.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard there was a report on the number of Covid deaths in Belgium. 20 000 people died in 2020. Of course they didn’t die from Covid, they died with the virus - as you know it is a case of comorbidity. They said half of those were old people in nursing homes… of course it is always very sad to lose a loved one, even when they are old. Then again it is also very sad to be in a nursing home in the first place and then even more sad to be forbidden to interact with anyone of your loved ones…
So maybe about 10 000 people who didn’t live in nursing homes caught this form of Covid and were not able to get rid of it themselves, and maybe they did not get the right treatment. That means their immune system was compromised. That happens… more often than we think. Even to people who are supposedly living and eating healthy. Right, I have a lot of people telling me they eat very healthy… wow… and they absolutely don’t!!! But they really believe they do... and yes I happen to know a thing or two about food and the impact on our health. You can’t go around fire and expect not to sweat right? Ignorance is bliss. Until disease hits you.
Also weird is this sudden issue we seem to have with dying. Well no, not really. Only when there is Covid. No one seems to be allowed to die with Covid. If you die with Covid then it is proof that Covid is a killer virus? More than 10 000 people were able to quietly die with influenza in 2018 in the Netherlands and... we were ok with that without locking down the country or taking away our rights. Wow. Right?
Moreover: governments in general really have the habit of supporting sick making actions that lead to (slowly) dying. Sick people are after all worth a lot more than healthy people in our economic system. And yes governments are the puppets… you still don’t believe it?
Let’s do math. In the Netherlands in 2017, 107 people died EVERY DAY as the result of CVD (Cardiovascular Disease). Every freaking day. Now… let’s see how many that is in a year? 39 055 (thank God it was not a leap year). That is a lot. Especially because the deceased were not a bunch of old people in nursing homes. Especially since we know heart disease is 99% reversible and preventable. But hey, there is 0,0% effort from most governments to help prevent or reverse heart disease! Au contraire mes amis! Governments are happy to support the very industries that contribute largely to the cause of heart disease! Yes!!! What is that called? Murder in the second? What does that mean for me as a taxpayer and my taxes are used to subsidize these industries? OMG… I am funding the murder of my fellow citizens! Hey but at least, a buck is made for the industry… and also for those creepy politicians who are on the board of directors etc…
No let’s just act like ignorant assholes and wear muzzles, live in fear, blame the youth, blame the Chinese, believe everything we are told through mainstream media, keep eating dairy, torture our fellow earthlings, destroy our planet. As long as we get that vaccine shot asap!
Kids and youngsters suffer, small business go bankrupt, perfectly healthy people are being tested … FOR WHAT?... We need to be registered. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? We can’t travel without the “ right documents “ SERIOUSLY? Does all of this not ring a freaking bell?
There are a lot more important and life threatening pandemics that are just not profitable enough when we try and stop them. No? Think …. Please… think for yourselves. You can come up with one for sure. The biggest one of all… No? You disappoint me. You do.
Feb 11 2018
Seems like we prefer to live in the illusion of a fixable society.
We prefer to deal with consequences. Not with the prevention of the thing that causes the “ugly” consequence.
Hey, we live in a free world. We get to do everything we want, and if it goes bad, there is a fix for it.
We eat what we want, preferably stuff that makes us sick, fat and expensive,
because we have surgeons, pills and insurance.
We have bypasses and keep eating junk food because heart failure is often fixable.
We take blood thinners after a heart attack,
because we want to keep clogging our arteries by eating lots of animal products.
We invent ocean cleaning arms to take plastic out of the oceans,
but we keep using plastics and we keep supporting the fishing industry
We take medicine for a lot of conditions,
but we refuse to change our lifestyle and diet (but we do sigh and feel like a victim).
We keep using plastic bottles and other planet killing materials
because “it gets recycled”.
We put special metal detectors in schools and think about arming teachers,
but we don’t seem to put enough thought or money
into researching the minds and backgrounds of derailed people who go and shoot kids in school.
We keep eating beef, resulting directly in the destruction of the planet and all its inhabitants
- including us - and the extreme violation of ethic code, because it is... just so.... tasty and
ah well… what do you mean global warming? Heart attack? Torture?
We really can’t help ourselves can we?
Have we lost our critical minds? Our sense of responsibility? Our drive to find out for ourselves?
Do we like it like this? Being slave to the illusion of the fixable society?
Who is in charge do you think?
And you really don’t think they have your best interest at heart, now do you?
To them, you are worth more being sick, ignorant and gullible than healthy, educated and critical.
I plead for prevention. This requires responsibility. This requires insight and most of all education. I have been teaching for 20 years now and my teaching model hasn’t changed. Teaching is sharing knowledge and providing the tools to assess the knowledge critically so the student can experience ownership… make the matter their own… resulting in the student feeling empowered.
Empowerment is what we need.
Let’s become responsible earthlings and look at sustainability in the broadest sense possible.
We need some fixing. Absolutely. Don’t get me wrong here, I am in favor of medical treatment for example for a lot of reasons, for lots of fixes.
We don’t need the kind of fixing that enslaves us and enriches oligarchs who keep crucial information and evidence in a vault.
We can find out ourselves. You can.
Nov 18 2017
I noticed we have become pretty comfortable with a state of amorality in our societies. Of course it would serve a great purpose to find out what led us to this, but I think whatever it is… the fact we have become ok with amorality is the very reason for the promotion of unethical behavior here and there.
immoral = not conforming to standards of morality
amoral = simply lacking moral sense
unethical = not morally correct
moral (n.) = standards of behavior
So, immoral is knowlingly manifesting inappropriate behavior. Amoral is not even knowing what is appropriate or as I like to call it: having become immune, indifferent to moral or simply not having been taught/ or “ forgotten”.
Do you remember how much fun it was and how “superior” it made you feel when you as a kid did something mischievous and got away with it?
I sure do. I still do from time to time. But besides making some people angry or upset, I never hurt anyone. OK, I might have. Unintentionally of course. It was ethically correct mischief. Or not? What if I did not have the intention and someone got hurt, but I “didn’t know”?
Who lays out the laws of moral behavior anyway?
How do we know what appropriate and inappropriate means?
Can we - as adults - actually hide behind the “ I didn’t know.... I wasn’t familiar with the moral” ?
Yes
No
In the whole #metoo affair that is exploding in the media, I notice that often it is about behavior that seems to once have been classified as immoral and thanks to getting away with it repeatedly, has found a place in a more amoral pool of events. I hear people saying; it is about power. Of course. But using power to get something done is not what we consider immoral/ amoral. We are fine with a supervisor or manager at work telling us where the priorities of the week are, telling us what to do. Power is even enjoyable. I remember I loved determining the tactics of a Softball game - giving my players signs to carry out something to help us win… And everyone was fine with it. Maybe not everyone agreed. Other topic :)
Abuse of power is unethical. I think adults are very much aware of when behavior becomes unethical. And the fact that someone gets away with unethical behavior for a long long time, doesn’t mean one day that person gets to use his/her get out of jail free card when accountability comes knocking on their door.
This elusive behavior, this not willing to take responsibility is exactly what I mean by the comfort of amorality nowadays. Immorality repeatedly lost its accountability and slips into amorality.
I am not a moral compass, really. I just observe and truth be told… I have always been very interested in my moral philosophy classes at Uni, but it can’t just be me who sees this happening?
The way we treat each other, our planet, our animals… we behave like we have never heard of or learned ethics. Or is it simply denying responsibility?
Why do you think fake news is so easily accepted? People prefer to hear what they want to hear, what suits them well at that moment. Critical thinking? No, really… says who? Who says we need to take responsibility ourselves?
Yes, who?
Who is teaching us about ethics? Ignorance is bliss right? Let’s just be gullible?
Why do we not know/ not wanna know where our food comes from? What it does to our bodies, to our minds, to our health, to our planet and to our animals?
Why is it such a weird statement that is normal for adults to actually know what they are eating, how the food was made? Why are we just accepting whatever … and are not capable or not willing to find out the truth? Why don’t we take the responsibility to find out EXACTLY how food is made.
Do you know how milk is made? How chicken lands on your plate?
Why is it so weird to wonder WHY NOT?
The most insane answer I hear - even coming from intelligent people: yeah, well, it just tastes so good.
Every day, we are abusing, hurting, torturing and poisoning animals in the most cruel ways, destroying our health and our planet, all for the benefit of the meat, dairy, fish and poultry and pharma industry.
And btw: we are NOT getting away with it anymore.
Don’t say you didn’t know. Open that door. And if you really didn’t know, find a reason to start your own critical thinking. For yourself, your loved ones, our planet, our animals.
Ignorance is not bliss. Not when you have a seat at the table.
For those who think it ain’t that bad, I recommend watching the docu movie Earthlings (2005).
Be warned: life as you know it, will never be the same again.
I have become a whole foods plant based advocate for many legit reasons. For Dutch speaking readers: check out my site: http://bit.ly/wathebjeindehand
May 13 2017
Nothing to hide, but the whole internet is seeking.
And they find. And when they don’t find, they create. You for example.
Our online behavior is measured and scrutinized and eventually scored. “They” are hundreds, thousands or maybe more companies and then some. And then also the government and then some more governments.
We seem to be pretty fine with it, because after all, we have nothing to hide. Well. I guess you could state you have nothing to hide, given the fact you would exactly know WHAT is known about you by WHOM.
You don’t.
I can get passionate about the subject of online privacy, while back in the day, I really didn’t seem to care. I thought it was awesome, all these tools to connect, to make life easier and share our activities in a crazy fast mode. Never cared about protection of my intellectual property or the privacy concept, until… I started caring! I needed to wake up, to understand the full scope, to learn the consequences and reasons. Ach, it was not the first time I had been ignorant.
I remember visiting the zoo all the time, eating McDonalds chicken and eating lamb chops from time to time. If you don’t know you can’t be blamed. Ignorance is bliss. And if you do know, you might still choose to ignore and benefit - usually financially. They call it human nature I think. (how terrible how they treat the chickens, how they are confined to cages all their lives and machine fed and how they cut off their beaks and legs while alive…! And then go to the store and buy that chicken, because it is the cheapest).
Let’s cut to the chase: there is one business model for internet: surveillance. Somehow I thought that was ok. Google trying to get to know me, offering me things I am interested in, in return for so many “free” tools.
But that is not what is going on! We think we are using websites, webtools and apps for free. Mja… not.
The whole reason of surveillance and scrutiny is advertising of course.
I read Vance Packard’s “The hidden persuaders” when I was 14 years old, in 1987. The book was almost as old as my dad but it shone a very interesting light on how we are influenced subconsciously.
So what is wrong with advertising? Nothing. Except it is influencing our behavior. From what we buy to what we believe, to what we want, need and who we vote for.
That’s all. We sell our privacy for - often - financial gain. Eek!
When we install an app or accept cookies, we give permissions. We never ever seem to hesitate about giving these permissions. Yeah, you can look into my contact list, use my camera, explore my photos, know my location…
This information allows thousands of companies (and some governments) directly or indirectly linked to these apps and cookies to do datamining and profiling. No they don’t need to read the content of your messages or emails or chats; building up a profile is easier done using the metadata. You see, you can lie about everything when you tell a story in an email of chat, but you can’t lie about when you sent it, where you were, who you sent it to etc… And thanks to getting to know you, the next time you enter a search, you will get information that is suitable for you. Who decides what is suitable? Well depends. On a lot of competition for your data and the right to advertise. And who knows there are higher causes involved?
Ever heard of subliminal manipulation*? If you have a Facebook account, you might have experienced it already. No of course you weren’t aware! None of your business! I am guessing “they” all do it online.
Before the rise of the internet (and don’t get me wrong I love this technology! I am just becoming very weary of the outgrowths), the options to persuade consumers were much more limited.
We can continue to not care, choose ignorance because of the benefits.
Just how beneficial is that price you pay in the end?
I recommend Dutch natives - and thank the authors for the insights and sources - reading (this is a Dutch book) “Je hebt wel iets te verbergen; over het levensbelang van privacy” by Maurits Martijn and Dimitri Tokmetzis. Just to give you a little shock about what is going on and how our scored nudging society might be well on its way to becoming more discriminative and how we… might be coming closer to losing our autonomy. Isn’t that like a very important thing? Freedom?
*Subliminal perception is a deliberate process created by communication technicians, whereby you receive and respond to information and instructions without being aware of it. Messages in the form of printed words, pictures or voices presented either very rapidly or very obscurely bypass your conscious awareness. Anything consciously perceived can be evaluated, criticized, discussed, argued, and possibly rejected. Anything programmed subliminally to your subconsciousness meets no resistance. This subliminal information is stored in your brain and capable of influencing your judgment, behavior and attitudes.
http://subliminalmanipulation.blogspot.nl/
March 16 2014
Janis said it's just another word for nothing left to lose, George and Andrew didn't want yours in the 80's, and then George made a great '90 version that - if you really listen to the lyrics and take your eyes off of the beautiful sexy people in the video - says so much. So much about… I think a desire to be free.
Or freed. Freed from desire?
Freedom. A state of being free. Not caged.
It's a very loaded word isn't it. A word that always had and always will have blood on its historical meaning. Slavery might be officially abolished here and there… but I don't think everybody sticks by it and not everyone buys it either. I know I don't.
Depends maybe on how you define slavery. I like this one: submission to a dominating influence (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slavery)
This definition makes it very simple to prove my point: we all are slaves! And not just harmlessly to the rhythm… as Grace put it (though I wonder if she maybe meant to warn us for the 24 hour economy outgrowths?)
When you are litterally caged and chained… then I can imagine breaking free must be freedom. But when we are slaves to invisible powers and we don't literally feel the chains around our ankles… then I am not too sure how to experience freedom. And shackled we are.
Many might feel comfortable in the illusion of being free to make choices. And there are so many. Too many probably. That only increases the illusion of freedom, right?
But… how many of those choices are real choices? They are at least founded on a set of values you inherit. And then there is the marketed life in a consumer society.
I'd almost call it manipulation.
I sure as hell don't want anyone to tell me what to do! Truth is, I am being told what to do all the time. And I don't even watch TV anymore.
What is the internet business doing uh? Making money off advertising. Basta.
(Should we even still care about cable tv advertising revenue anymore?)
Remember this quote:
We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.
What a liberating thought! How free do you feel now?
Oh, of course, it doesn't apply to you, you are immune and you do not participate in the consumer society. Sure.
Point is: the little (or huge) hidden persuaders are literally everywhere in our life. TV, internet, apps, billboards, magazines and good old direct (e)mailings. And guess what? Online they are more persuasive because of their ability to adjust to your online behavior. (yeah I hear you thinking and no, I don't look at them either… right :))
Advertising is a nasty business when it comes down to your freedom. Your desires are stirred! And simply created when you don't have them.
But maybe not as nasty as politics… and combined they could be a very "dominating influence" ;)
Where politics meets business and how that effects our choices… oh...I get a really sour taste in my mouth writing down words like corporatocracy, lobbying and oligarchy. Who rules the world? Not "the people" no…
The pharma industry? The oil producing entities? Insurance companies?
I am not even sure we can rule ourselves ;)
p.s. Have you ever wondered why - in some or maybe most parts of the world - there seems to be a general consensus on Coca Cola being the real cola? I mean… says who???
And that is just one silly example.
How free do you feel now?
THANK GOD WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH in this country.
March 11 2012
Why are we so hung up on continuous improvement? I know I am. To me, it’s almost like a sport. Or better... it used to be. I’ve come to reconsider this lately.
I am sure many of us live in the world I live in, where: there is always room for improvement, you can do better, try harder, it’s never (good) enough.
It is called: the performance driven competitive society.
For me, this has been my habitat since childhood, because I was raised like that.
It therefore is not so surprising I integrated and adopted this lifestyle: I can do better, I can do faster, I can do more efficient, good is not good enough, the standards are high - for me and everyone I deal with.
A lifestyle that comes with a very sour price tag, I recently learned the hard way.
In se, I think improving things to make life easier is good. Fun also!
But is continuous improvement really a healthy value? Hm... maybe not “in overdrive”.
And I wonder what kind of devious role technology is playing in all this? I love technology. I often am the early adopter. But is technology always “improving” the quality of life, or is it rather fitting everything better in a (too) fast paced and competitive life?
e.g. communication.
We have an overflown bucket of ways to communicate with each other today. But has it improved our communication? Hm...it has improved the speed, but the quality? We share information more easily, meaning...faster! But last time I checked, sharing information is not communicating. And since 90% of communication is non verbal... I am guessing a lot can get lost “in translation”. Our zillion channels of communication serve a lot of purposes, but not the communication itself.
I have wondered about continuously improving everything: where does it end?
e.g. track runners.
I looked it up, in 1893 there were some men (including a Belgian!!!) that ran the 100 m in 10.8 seconds. Since 2009, Usain holds the record with 9.58 seconds. When will the next record be noted? Unless we beat the speed of light, there has got to be a limit no?
e.g. profits
If a company needs to make profits year after year... grow bigger and bigger... then where does it end? A monopoly undoubtedly. Companies grow, merge, resulting in less and bigger companies. It’s the result of the accumulation of capital by a few players in the market. Isn’t capitalism killing its own foundations - free market and free competition?
We all know this economic model influences our social system. Compete, battle, shut down your competitors. Ever noticed how many tv shows have “a battle” as theme? They start with a group of people and end up with one... yes... only one winner. Beating the competition is entertaining.
Is the dog eat dog mindset, striking out your competition the only way forward in life? I get nasty goosebumbs thinking about this individualistic thinking.
Sometimes it’s good enough. A two year old tv does not need to be replaced if it is still working well. A one year old cell phone might do its job for another 5 years. But sometimes we tend to get caught by that whirling tornado of consumerism... thinking it will improve our lives... or we simply are trying to keep up with the Joneses …
We too often are triggered to do better, faster.
Sometimes it’s ok like it is. Good enough. Sometimes YOU are ok. ok enough, even perfect enough!
I am not pleading for an “improvement arrest”, I think change is necessary, but we could maybe drop a gear or two, or lower that bar a bit? For our health’s sake?
Break free... or at least become slave to a more laid back rhythm...
Feb 23 2013
Technically, I am Gen X. I am part of that group of people who were exposed to some “impacting developments” over a couple of decades. (yes, ok, true)
So here I am ... child of my time. I can only speak for myself, and from what I see around me, but I do wonder if our generation is a little predisposed to the consequences of fragmentation, consumerism, the growing meritocracy, instability (political, economic, familial) and most of all: rising individualism.
These are phenomena that might have caught up on us.
I can imagine you are wondering: where is this going? Yeah, my brain has probably started to fragmentize as well, but I am hardheaded enough to continue and share some contemplations.
Here is my point: our society (the one I live in, the “western” one) is sick (let’s dig into why another time, in a bar preferably, with a beer or two... consider yourself invited btw) and we are fighting its diseases. Some of the sickness is rubbing off on us. On all of us of course.
Since the doors to the “art of psychology” have been opened for the masses (there is a Psychology for Dummies, can you believe it...), it’s easy to observe and detect all kinds of “mental conditions”: ADHD, autism, bipolar syndrome, borderline syndrome, narcissism, codepency, neurotism, OCD, burn out syndrome. Should we be worried???
One of my survival tools in life is: not taking everything too seriously. So I will not take myself too seriously here, but I know a lot of people who at some point in their lives “needed” therapy (including yours truly) and if I look at the mental conditions I mentioned above, I definitely have features of all of them! I can’t sit still for longer than 30 min and focus on one thing: ADHD? I sometimes change from a good mood to a bad mood in less than one hour: bipolar? I sometimes - after parking my car in a parking lot - walk back to my car to check if I turned off my lights: neurotic trait? I sometimes thrive on helping other people: codependent? I sometimes like to do everything in a very organized way: autist in me? And those things sometimes are done in a specific order and why not - a specific time frame: OCD?
And yes... I did burn out. Who knew! Such a strong person...
I see people around me falling … one after the other... into the statistics of long term absence.
I am not too sure about borderline, because it’s a very popular term, and looking at the criteria the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (this is the Bible of Psychology more or less) has formulated: then ... we all must be in trouble.
The quickly diagnosed and labeled... not seldom picked up by the pharma industry and turned into the medicated. Don’t you find it shocking how many people are on anti-depressants today??
Just so happens I started to read a book called “Borderline Times” by Belgian psychiatrist Dirk De Wachter. I love it. He has a hammer, he sees the nail and hits it right on the head. Intellectual yummie food. (note: written in Dutch)
Ok so, this borderline society needs treatment. I hope everyone feels a bit defiant in this challenge.
We need to start taking better care of ourselves.
Together.
March 31 2013
Physical proximity increases the quality and likelihood of collaboration.
One of those universal laws. It has always been like that and even in our highly tech induced society with an explosive amount of platforms enabling communication, it is still like that. And it is exactly NOW we should be a little vigilant about the exaltation of remoteness in a virtual social and professional context and exactly now we should not forget about our proximity powers to reach (common) goals.
I am throwing a muscle memory statement on the table again: the quality of communication depends for the better part on non verbal interaction.
This could be the end of the post. It kinda explains the whole point I guess.
Some examples then on how using more than two of our senses creates a much better field of opportunities, improves the quality of interaction, and increases the chance of reaching a good result (whatever it may be). I would in the meantime also like to introduce sense number 6 as an official sense. The sense called “feeling”. Meaning: gut feeling. But it could be a bridge too far for some ;)
Of course, we first need to agree collaboration is necessary. To produce, innovate, accomplish, achieve, win, enjoy, improve, help, understand, rejoice, work out, solve, cherish, save,... any kind of goal. Even when you call it your personal goal.
Emails: maybe read...maybe not, maybe dropped in the “follow up” section”, not always read well, not always answered, not always interpreted well, not always understood, not always personal. One sense. Chatting can be personal. Still one sense. Phonecalls too. Lots gets lost. Videoconferencing: Two senses. Better.
All of these can work well. Especially when there has been a precedent of face to face contact.
I’m sure you can think of such a case, when communication/ collaboration with someone seemed hard and then after meeting them in person, the verbal and written communication smoothens...
At least 4 senses are in play when meeting someone in person.
General interaction with friends: who disagrees the most valued interaction is face to face? There is no scientific back up needed for this one, is there? But all the more vigilance needed though for the state of virtual existence in a so called friends network.
Without bringing up Fakebook - again - it’s tempting ;) to repeat the potential negative effects of living a virtual life and so on - here is another example. Ever tried online dating? Well, it usually starts with the exchange of text and pictures. And by the time you decide to meet your date in person, you already formed an image, you have expectations,... and believe me, you could get a lot less than you bargained for... when you start the “live” dating. You see, the image printed in your brain unfortunately sticks pretty hard and it can prevent you from “seeing” the real deal.
Some people say they have nothing " against " gay people … but... hey...not in my backyard! And then the son/ friend/ whoever close to them - comes out. And so does the prejudice. Until they sit down and talk about it, the prejudice has a chance to be lifted. Numerous examples available... for different “diverse” groups. Using more senses to form an opinion increases the chance of more tolerance (ed: acceptance is what we aim for!) and reduces the chance of bigotry.
Teaching: What is the best way to learn/ teach?
Monkey see monkey do.
Makes sense?