The importance of staying at home

When you are single, sometimes you have preference of certain height, skin tone, or hobbies in your partner. One of my girlfriends took that to a new dimension by stating that the next guy she is dating will be from CERN.

Living in Geneva, it may seem as not a very obnoxious demand – at the end of the day CERN, an international institution specialized on fundamental physics meaning ultimately trying to find out what the Universe is made of and how it works is located in Geneva. But despite potentially finding someone who can show you (or at least explain for hours) how black holes are created, she was looking for someone who is accustomed to books.

Economic realities let as travel cheaper, but not smarter

The environmental impact of air travel is undeniable, leading to the rise of “flight shaming.” However, outright banning flights isn’t a feasible choice as global connectivity is an essential factor for maintaining global peace. In order to diminish the impact, flight passengers are now given choice to offset their emissions – sometimes even through their own flight carrier.

The market prices for flight tickets, remarkably, aren’t influenced by the emissions a flight produces. Instead, ticket prices are determined by demand and the timing of the purchase. This creates a discrepancy between the flight's duration and its cost. You can fly last minute for 300 Euros both within Europe and to Tokyo, while alternatives to flying, such as trains and boats, could be the same price, but require more planning, time, and patience—qualities that our fast-paced world seems to value less.

My friend was getting weary of meeting men who were too focused on their momentary presence, their Instagram image, desiring casual and effortless relationships. She longed to have a ride or die – someone with a distinct set of values, where patience was a key attribute. She believed that individuals who enjoy reading tend to be more patient. And, extending this logic, at CERN people do read books – they need to study and form their knowledge base.

Travelling helps understand people.. or not

A century ago, and even just a few decades back, travel was synonymous with immersing oneself into new cultures and history, gaining new perspectives. Quite often, this was a significant mean to expose oneself to a new set of information, given the much more limited sources of information available at the time.

In the current day and age, more and more people travel primarily for the sake of travelling and creating content for social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. Modern culture seems to choose showcasing over understanding – highlighting one’s presence in various locations, often striving to appear as or even more trendy than others.

The unparalleled access to information we enjoy today offers us a virtual entry to almost any place in the world, providing a unique window into lives and cultures of others. Yet, truly understanding another’s life is not the same as seeing it. This understanding requires empathy, a trait not as widespread as one might hope. To genuinely comprehend another person, one must look beyond the picture (both physical or on social media) – take an interest in a person’s aspirations and struggles. This depth of understanding is something that the superficiality of social media and rapid travel often fails to facilitate.

In books, however, there is a solid world that is created by the author – fictional or documenting real life, but there is an inner accountability to create a full picture – otherwise no one would be reading the book.

Turns out, people in CERN do read books – there is even a library where people actually do go, take books and read them. Makes sense, because when you can’t travel to a black hole every time you want to study it – you learn how to operate from home. By limiting herself to CERN my friend has targeted people who were able to get new experiences and knowledge without travelling far from their living room.

Life with no filter

Modern technologies came with many perks that are accessible at a hit of a button: ordering groceries online, signing up for news from your favorite bar or band, editing your photo with more make up, putting on a pair of cat ears… What tends to be underestimated is that every touch or screen scroll puts information into the algorithms. These algorithms feed what you are most likely to discover the next time, so that you get more interesting content – and spend more time on the same social media.

In contrast, you cannot filter what a book is offering to you: it is there and cannot be changed, no matter if you get bored or annoyed, or confused at the sudden turn of events. A book is a collection of facts – either real-world or fictional – that exist in the head of the author as a solid story that cannot be adapted, changed or filtered.

Similarly in life, it is important to take life as is and not select only the bits that you like and that spark joy in you. You don’t always have to travel to get a break from reality – you sometimes need to make the reality something that you can live with.

Consumerism is in our society DNA

What you see on social media is formed by what you have seen there before, and in many ways it is more efficient. It makes our life easier. Even if you think that third-party advertisements can sometimes creep, they also often target your needs, or suggest some useful information. What you follow in social media, your newsletters – all of this feeds into the algorithm providing information on you.

Books do not have such an algorithm to filter information that they give, they provide a solid point of view of the author. A book cannot readjust its content midway if you did not like a turn of events, or cancel some pages. Books train your brain to grasp the whole story, and create in your imagination missing parts.

Both books and social media content can tell you a lot about the person. But in one case you cater to the fast information trends, instant consumerism and travel for social media impressions, and in the other you train your brain to stay concentrated, accept lengthy information and create new universes on the basis of it.

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Living in the modern era can indeed be overwhelming, where the relentless pace of consumerism is surpassed only by the even more rapid production of information, so accelerated that it necessitates processing by machines and artificial intelligence for humans just to be able to grasp the main ideas. Ever since Deep Blue's victory over Garry Kasparov, it's become evident that human capabilities cannot match this speed on their own. So, maybe, instead of focusing on competing with this pace, we should embrace our unique human strengths, such as creativity, compassion and the ability to generate original ideas. Interestingly, research indicates that creativity and novel concepts often stem from procrastination and a type of laziness that's free from the distractions of social media – an aspect largely overlooked in today's fast-paced society. Perhaps CERN is not only a worthy dating pool, but also a solid scientific blueprint generator – they are definitely onto something with their library for scientists, promoting an environment conducive to deep thought and reflection, which could be crucial in unraveling the mysteries of the universe's creation. In the end of the day, Newton was just sitting in a park reading a book, when an apple inspired him to uncover some of the fundamental laws of physics.

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And what about my friend? Well, she got her boyfriend from CERN in just weeks after our conversation. Four years later – they are still together, stronger than ever, and guess what – they are still reading books at home.