I hate the little red dot.

You know the one, the one that indicates an app notifying that something or someone needs your attention.

That little red dot. Sometimes it has numbers inside, sometimes just a red dot.

So much is riding on a stupid little red dot.

Is it from someone you don’t want to talk to?

 Are you waiting for a certain someone to make a red dot appear on your screen?

Is it just another interruption?

A red dot with single digits can make you feel unpopular and/or unloved.

A red dot with double+ digits can make you feel popular and/or loved.

That silly red dot can put you into anxiety for any number of reasons.

And it’s all just bullshit.

What has humanity come to, where a little red dot can make or break your day, your week, your life?

We have gone from speaking to each other face to face, to speaking over the phone.

☞From speaking over the phone to voice mail.

☞From leaving voice mail to email.

☞From email to texting.

☞From texting to social media.

☞From social media to little red dots.

Our lives have been reduced to the sum of little red dots.

And what’s the value of a little red dot? Whatever value we place on it.

Sadly, most of us have placed too much value on a little red dot instead of what really matters.

We have become sluggish in what mostly matters, preferring pixels on a screen instead of participating in real life.

Real life won’t light up your screen in red dots.

But we didn’t come here to collect little red dots. We came here to collect experiences, love, and people. We came to grow in body, mind, and soul.

So turn off all your notifications. ALL your notifications. You can always check messages later; you aren’t the President of the United States.

Go TALK to someone, go outside, call your grandmother, call your mother, go for a walk, go get a coffee IN the coffee shop, sit at a café patio, order a beverage, and people watch, go to a pub and sit at the bar and chat with people, or anything that doesn’t involve a screen, but just do something in real life, without looking at/using/needing a screen.

Do one of these things at least once a day.

And then watch and see how your LIFE lights up. You won’t even care anymore about stupid little red dots.