Five years ago my granddaughter was eight years old, she didn't have a cell phone yet, she entertained herself playing with her friends and swimming in the pool.
Every time I called her, she would answer me with great enthusiasm, she never stopped telling me about her little daily adventures, school life was always an inexhaustible source of stories. She could spend a whole afternoon telling me about her long day.
She is thirteen now, still swimming in the pool, but oddly enough she has fewer friends than she did five years ago. However, every time I call her we barely talk for a few minutes, she always replies that she has to cut the conversation short because she "doesn't have time". Although she doesn't tell me I know that all her haste is due to her attention to her cell phone.
It could be that my granddaughter, like so many people today, has entered what they call FOMO (Fear of mising out) and feels a great pressure not to miss a single moment of what is happening in the wide world of social networks. Your time has accelerated.
Our perception of time has a lot to do with the stimuli we have around us. I remember that until my teenage years I lived in a suburban area where we had little electricity, no television, and our connection to the outside world was provided by a battery-powered radio.
In that small world time passed very slowly, basically attached to the rhythm of nature. That's why we valued going to school so much, it was the way to find other kinds of activities to fill the long hours of the day.
Now everything is completely different, life has accelerated in an unusual way. This is very noticeable for me, the contrast with what I lived in my childhood is evident, this rushed rhythm is nothing like the calm of those days...
I must confess that many times I feel stunned by the speed that is imprinted on life today. It is a matter that really bothers me. I don't quite understand the reason for the bombardment of messages that invite us not to waste a second, as if life had to be lived in a single instant.
Living at a fast pace has serious consequences on our attention, on our personal relationships and on the way we enjoy ourselves...
All important things should be done slowly. It is not the same to consume our food calmly than to swallow it in a hurry. To appreciate the flavors you have to take small bites and hold them for a long time in the mouth, thus our food also becomes a form of pleasure. By eating in haste we kill that possibility.
No solid relationship can be cultivated in a hurried way. To achieve good relationships it is necessary to know the other, and for that it is indispensable to listen to him, to look at him with attention and to touch him at the right moment and all that requires time, all that has to be done without any hurry No lasting friendship is made in a hurry.
There is nothing that requires more time than to know ourselves, to know what we like or dislike, what upsets or calms us, demands an attentive inner examination and that can only be achieved slowly, calmly, paying close attention to body signals. It is not something we can rush.
My recommendation is to try to find the balance. We always have the possibility of putting a stop to the maddening rhythm imposed by today's life. It is not true that we have to live at an accelerated pace.
The important thing is to find the priority, to realize the things that are meaningful to each one of us.
In my case, the most important thing is to cultivate relationships with my friends and family; I dedicate as much time as possible to them. I fully enjoy every second of their company. The rest can wait...
This is my entry to the challenge proposed by friend 
Thanks for your time.
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