We’ve all experienced the feeling. In the midst of a group of people we find most of them with heads bent and fingers flying, “communicating” or reviewing information on their personal phone or tablet. The net of information or relationships they pursue discount the people around them and instead connects them with people and concepts that are safe, electronic, and can be controlled by the viewer. The electronic entities don’t need deodorant, can be quickly dismissed if they challenge the user’s perspectives, and simply can be used for entertainment and bolstering self-assurance with little or no effort. We have created the ultimate Tower of Babel where the contact nature of life becomes digital signals and pixels. We are lost in a sea of information with no compass and no significant connection to each other. “Communication” becomes data dumps with increasingly absent thought or wisdom behind it. Relationships become strokes on the keyboard and emotions cute abbreviations.

Take a moment and think about how this impacts our personal relationships and our public policy formulation and governance. Without understanding the impact of electronic disconnection, our decisions tend to be influenced by the largest number of data points or “views” and become subtly detached from traditional values, perspectives, and concepts such as servant leadership, the pursuit of what is “pono” (right or righteous), and the general welfare of the community. Policy decisions descend into sorting out polling numbers, not true visionary leadership. We become increasingly disconnected from reality as the information we are fed narrows our focal plane and suffocates our understanding.

This is not a happy picture, but is also not new; cultures have struggled with disconnection throughout history. Our traditional Hawaiian culture in particular was focused on the negative impact of disconnection within the community. Island people need to be particularly engaged and aware of their relationships both with their human counterparts and also with the natural resources they steward. Island people understand that life is a “contact” sport with risks and negative outcomes that demand their attention. The structure of our Hawaiian language reflects this concern for clear communication and attention to details as it relates to relationships.

A particularly pejorative description of a person in the Hawaiian culture was the phrase, “He kanaka pī!”…he is a stingy person! As I thought about this condemnation, I was more and more drawn to the insight that the culture was not necessarily solely condemning a person’s selfish behavior, but rather was judging the fact that this person was disconnected from the core values and culture that worked to sustain their community. The person’s focus on self and his/her possessions presented a real threat to the survival of the communal whole.

With the impact of electronic disconnection in today’s world, we can see the same negative impacts to our community’s long-term health and to the survival and strengthening of our cultural core as Hawaiian people. Hawaiian culture is about engagement and real time relationships in the midst of life’s struggles. When we bond with each other in facing the challenges of life, we reaffirm the values and perspectives that have been modeled to us by our kūpuna and our extended ‘ohana. It serves to validate these values and relationships so that we can become stewards of them and pass them on through engaged relationships with our children and colleagues. The hours I spent watching my father and uncles fishing and relating to people left me with life lessons that I hope I have passed on and that I hope will enrich our community’s life. I probably could have learned all the data through Wikipedia, but I would have missed life and the richness of relationships in the process.

Take some time apart with children, friends, and/or relatives. Turn off the electronic disconnectors. Bask in real (and often uncomfortable) interactions with those around you, those you have made commitments to and have aloha for, even those people who put your teeth on edge. Fight electronic disconnection with passion!! Trust me, it will be a blessing… HTH. SCNR. BFF. Jan.