“Don’t nobody go nowhere”

Inactivity. It drives us up and down the wall, we constantly need to do something, anything. All is fine as long as we keep going.

It can be as simple as doodling or checking Facebook during a lecture, playing cards or learning for something more than a week ahead of time during breaks. But it is something we do, even when we are with other people, we do it while talking to them about all kinds of subjects, but we still do them. We search for things to do. We’re used to multitasking, we don’t even think twice about it. But isn’t there something we’ve lost by always multitasking?

Most of our conversations have turned either information-specific (we ‘need’ to talk), boredom-related (there’s nothing else to do anyways), or simply ridiculous (‘sarcasm’). Talking for the sake of talking is gone, it’s a thing of the past. Thus now we learn more factual information about the people we converse with, we find out about their lives, about their wishes and aspirations. But we often miss what could be considered the most important part of a person – the essence. Who is the person really, how does he or she think, what are the simple things they ponder about daily? The factual information gives us the background of the person, the ‘essence’, so to say, tells the story of who the person is on the inside. And to know that one must talk to another person for the sole purpose of talking to that other person, of enjoying his or her company for a while longer, of finding out more about the person than many other fellow peers. It’s a simple enough thing to do, but it is rarely done. Time is a diminishing resource and we all have things to get done. Just talking is no longer a must.

Perhaps now the only solution is walking while talking. It’s still multitasking, but it is very likely to be less of an attention hoarder than, say studying or playing Monopoly. So perhaps it is better to take a long walk for the sake of conversation, for the sake of getting to know another person. It can be in a random direction, it can be aimed, but it is a slow walk that keeps away the impending case of ADD and does its best to avoid interruptions. It keeps us going.