✗ I'm right here... ✗

"Dear friends, the precious gift of your presence cannot be shared on social media. It may help you connect with a multitude of people, but when you're in a conversation and your attention drifts away to your phone, and your eyes turn shifty, you have begun to be robbed of the human ability to be fully present for people.

Intimacy cannot be replaced with tagging friends, sharing statuses or beautiful pictures. A personality cannot be truly founded on cool hastags, witty tweets or typographical quotes. You are more than these things. You are real. You are present in a place.

I'm sure you can still remember enjoying being present at a place with a person, with a group, with a loved one. Like your parents or guardians, who have grey lines in their hair and wrinkles on their face but you have not seen it because your eyes have been staring at glass-cold phone screens. Leave the devices aside in your pocket, away for awhile, and use your own senses to enjoy the people around you.

Listen again. See again. Hold each other.

I promise you, you'll feel more real, a lot less lonely and more present with the joyous reality of living with other people who might have their problems and quirks, who might be unbearable at times. But, once in a while, you'll find a genuine smile, a beautiful moment of laughter amongst friends, a look in the eye that says "I'm here with you. I'm right here." - moments where silence is not feared.

I'll see you around."

- Joseph Soo