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Nutshell Kingdom: Not a Telephone Junky
2003
I remember learning not to hurt people's feelings as a child, not because I was told that it was wrong, but because of that immediate "look" in the eyes of my scorn's recipient. That wound, seen close-up, was a lesson no mere instruction could teach.
So imagine this: that lesson only extended to face-to-face contact. a person so conditioned to respond to faces, would suffer no such social limitations on the phone (or online). Phone conversations with loved ones wopuld leave the ravaged husks of their emotional life lying on the ground, smoke rising from what's left. You talk on, not even recognizing what you're doing-- why would you? You can't see their eyes.
I guess I'm saying that the eyes of others contain messages that we learn stronger than lessons learned by words. The eye-lessons go off and transfigure non- eye-contact situations. But what if they didn't? We'd rip each other apart in blissful ignorance in our new faceless society. I have plenty of friends online who I've never met. Imagine how we'd treat each other, but for the those early lessons watching the wounded eyes of our earliest victims.
