Zoe’s World: Put Away The Phone And Have Some Fun

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Zoe O'Connor 1WE are all living in the 21st century, the technology age.

Everything that we do is surrounded by phones or computers. We are no longer just living; we are telling people how we live.

Whether it be an innocent instagram photo or a full spiel about how you spent your day on facebook, we all have this need to share everything with our “friends”, all in the hope of being “liked”.

Some people could happily live their lives through a screen, but that is not really living. I am not saying that we should all throw our numerous devices in the ocean and book a one way ticket to the south of France. Few of us have the money for that kind of living.

We don’t need a big wad of cash and a private jet to start living our lives. We just need to take a step back from our phones and indulge in the simple pleasures of life.

We are human  and we still crave something that will stimulate our senses, beyond the latest video game. We still want to have fun in the REAL world. I know it’s shocking to think that there is life beyond twitter, but bear with me.

You could take the Rose of Tralee festival as an example. What is it all about? The answer varies from person to person, but if you want to grab a snorkel and dive deep into it, it is about humans enjoying human company.

That simple.

If you look at the funfair (my personal favourite part), it is no different to the type of fun that people enjoyed back in the 50’s. Well, if you minus some of the varsity jackets, it is practically the same thing.

We all still scream and shout from the enjoyment of rides that go a little bit too fast for our liking. We all sigh with the same level of exasperation when we can’t hit that stupid little tin can and we cheer with the same enthusiasm when we do.

We get to see all of the people who we have only seen on a screen, who have also come to the festival to indulge in this simple enjoyment.

You can’t tell me you get more enjoyment scrolling through your Facebook feed than you do from stuffing your face with the most random food objects that can be deep fat fried? ( And you say yes, you obviously haven’t had a deep fat fried mars bar recently)

Then you have the Rose Selection. This shows us that we still like to admire human characteristics. Whether it be the characteristics of the Roses or the characteristics of Daithi O’Se , it is all in simple human spirit.

We then choose which Rose we want to win and when the winner is selected, we triumphantly announce that we were right (while we are hoping that everyone else has consumed enough alcohol that they won’t actually remember whether you were right or not).

The Rose Ball is a chance for us to be blown back in time and just enjoy the magic of planning our outfit. It’s our chance to have our Cinderella fantasies come true, and if I remember correctly, Cinderella did not have an iPhone.

Everything about the festival shows that it is very possible to have very simple fun. The real world, despite all of its flaws, can still provide us with immense enjoyment. Just because the internet is there, doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the things that were there before it.

Put down the phones and stop telling people how you are living and just live.

Oh and in the hope that my generation may also take this advice, I have to appeal to them too. So, YOLO and all that…

• Read Zoe’s blog here and follow her on Twitter: @Zobo2042

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