Every Blondie Needs A Brownie By Her Side

Live Life The Real Way

I have 422 friends yet I am lonely

I speak to all of them everyday yet none of them really know me

The problem I have sits in the space in-between

Looking into their eyes or at a name on a screen

I took a step back and opened my eyes

I looked round and realised

This media we call social is anything but

when we open our computers and it's our doors we shut

All this technology we have it's just an illusion

Community, companionship, a sense of inclusion

When you step away from this device of delusion

You awaken to see a world of confusion

A world where we're slaves to the technology we mastered

Where information gets sold by some rich, greedy bastard

A world of self-interest, self-image, self-promotion

Where we all share our best bits but leave out the emotion

We're at our most happy with an experience we share

But is it the same if no one is there?

Be there for your friends and they'll be there too

But no one will be if a group message will do

We edit and exaggerate, crave adulation

We pretend not to notice the social isolation

We put our words into order till our lives are glistening

We don't even know if anyone is listening

Being alone isn't the problem let me just emphasise

If you read a book, paint a picture, or do some exercise

You're being productive and present not reserved and reclused

You're being awake and attentive and putting your time to good use

So when you're in public and you start to feel alone

Put your hands behind your head, step away from the phone

You don't need to stare at your menu or at your contact list

Just talk to one another, learn to co-exist

I can't stand to hear the silence of a busy commuter train

When no one wants to talk for the fear of looking insane

We're becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies

To engage with one another and look into someone's eyes.

We're surrounded by children who since they were born

Have watched us living like robots and think it's the norm

It's not very likely you'll make world's greatest Dad

If you can't entertain a child without using an iPad

When I was a child I'd never be home

I'd be out with my friends, on our bikes we'd roam

I'd wear holes in my trainers and graze up my knees

Or build our own clubhouse high up in the trees

Now the park is so quiet it gives me a chill

See no children outside and the swings hanging still

There's no skipping, no hopscotch, no church and no steeple

We're a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people

So look up from your phone, shut down the display

Take in your surroundings, make the most of today

Just one real connection is all it can take

To show you the difference that being there can make

Be there in the moment as she gives you the look

That you remember forever as when love overtook

The time she first held your hand or first kissed your lips

The time you first disagreed but still loved her to bits

The time you don't have to tell hundreds of what you've just done

Because you want to share this moment with just this one.

The time you sell your computer so you can buy a ring

For the girl of your dreams who is now the real thing

The time you want to start a family and the moment when

You first hold your little girl and get to fall in love again

The time she keeps you up at nights and all you want is rest

And the time you wipe away the tears as your baby flees the nest

The time your baby girl returns with a boy for you to hold

And the time he calls you Grandad and makes you feel real old

The time you take in all you've made when you're giving life attention

And how you're real glad you didn't waste it by looking down at some invention

The time you hold your wife's hand, sit down beside her bed.

You tell her that you love her, lay a kiss upon her head.

She then whispers to you quietly as her heart gives a final beat

That she's lucky she got stopped by that lost boy in the street

But none of these times ever happened. You never had any of this

When you're too busy looking down, you don't see the chances you miss

So look up from your phones, shut down those displays

We have a finite existence, a set number of days

Don't waste your life getting caught in the net

because when the end comes, nothing's worse than regret

I am guilty too of being part of this machine

this digital world we are heard but not seen

where we type as we talk and read as we chat

where we spend hours together without making eye-contact

So don't give in to a life where you follow the hype

Give people your love, don't give them your "like"

Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined

Go out into the world, leave distractions behind

Look up from your phone, shut down the display

Stop watching this video, live life the real way.