A rattling noise coming out of a small black box, a light diffusing through the room, an annoying sound of a beeping notification: there is no peace for who belongs to the virtual community, the golden cage we built for ourselves. Even if we want to go through memories, we have to select the pictures of a recent trip from an external hard drive and we meticulously choose to show the ones where we look happier, smarter, or even thinner.

We’d rather not post pictures with other people, as a lonely selfie is the best option — our friends or partners should be liking our picture instead of being next to us, or the syndrome of the crown would not prevail. And then, please, let’s not share much about our private life because on the social media we still can build our own planet which is first of all made of the “water” of working contacts (productivity first!), and of craters filled with traces of past relationships, old friendships and distant relatives. Some of them could still turn out to be a precious resource, who knows?

Sometimes I wonder how far are we from the realization of the world presented by Ready Player One, the science fiction novel on OASIS, the virtual reality where everything that matters for the users is to find the Easter egg and inherit a fortune (by the way, after reading the book one would have high expectations for the Spielberg’s movie).

A picture from Spielberg’s movie Ready Player One, taken from the website http://leganerd.com/2018/02/14/ready-player-one-poster-ufficiale-italiano/

O tempora, o mores! Smartphones are everywhere, even on the dining table or hidden under it to scroll down the news feed and see if someone else is having a better time than us — always with the same people, this routine will kill us! How cliché of us dating the same person, seeing always the same group of friends, looking for a stability in such an unstable world.

I miss those days when I could have a conversation with a group of Brazilian children, visit their families, answer their questions about buses, traffic, people in Europe. I could spend the afternoon marvelling at a cocoa plant, peeling a jackfruit, napping on the wall of a fortress and drinking coconut water. What is wonder, if not the Greek θαύμα (thauma) which like a τραῦμα (trauma, a wound) opens us to the unexpected.

In this time and space everything is cold, aseptic and white like the room of Saint-Paul Asylum, where Vincent Van Gogh spent his last years, perfectly depicted in the last theatre play with Alessandro Preziosi — which I encourage you to see at the Teatro Eliseo in Rome, where it is in program until March 4. Even the title is emblematic, and its literary translation in English would be something like “The deafening smell of white” (in Italian, L’odore assordante del bianco). When the curtain falls, the song “Dream on” by Depeche Mode reaches the spectators still silent and pensive after the intense monologue.

The question is: can you feel a little love? I know a few people who would underestimate this whole “feeling” issue. But this is quite disappointing, even for those who take very much into account the value of reason. Recently, I have been reading a book written by Vito Mancuso, one of my favorite theologians. I would like to recall some of the most important passages, according to my point of view. The author affirms that the exercise of reason leads to understand:

a) which are the decisive questions of existence

b) the motivations behind the thesis and the antithesis

c) the impossibility of a rational decision able to produce certain knowledge, in favour of the thesis or antithesis

Therefore, as he concludes “What pushes us to decide existentially between the two poles does not come from reason, but from something different which is called feeling.” He continues, “… as it is true for life, also thinking involves thermodynamics, that means that we think because there is something warm behind it. As life needs the heat (calories), the same happens for our thinking process.”

Call me a dreamer, or someone whose ENFP personality will lead to a bad end, but I would like to see more humanity in me and the others. I would like to spend more time building relations with concrete people than avatars or users, to build a real community and not one where we still are strangers who live together somehow — not bound by anything, if not a common roof over our heads.

We are good at reducing and recycling waste, but what happens when we ignore human resources and waste human talents? Yeah. What a waste, huh? The virtual reality and the lack of interest in our neighbor’s life is an horrible poison which spares no one. But don’t worry, in this I am both victim and perpetrator, as could be those who are reading. Here, I would like to quote Pope Francis’ message to young people for the 33rd World Youth Day: “Open wide the doors of your life! May your time and space be filled with meaningful relationships, real people, with whom to share your authentic and concrete experiences of daily life.”

Take in your hands “the love which you put under your chest as a temporary device”, to say it with the words of an Italian singer. Stop hiding behind the screen, dare to live, be brave and rediscover all the simple small things which make life worth living! Be sure that no electronic device or cold reasoning can substitute the warmth of a smile and the hope of a better future together.