Michael is:
wondering where in cyberspace he should post this lyric:
"Everyone was messaging like it was going out of style
It was just the cynic in me
God i love communicating!
I just hate the shit we're missing"
"Everyone was messaging like it was going out of style
It was just the cynic in me
God i love communicating!
I just hate the shit we're missing"
That is totally what happened there.
Huh, wasn't aware of the newspaper thing actually. Guess the song is pretty hyperbolic... has the smack of that hyper-paranoia that makes me think of the Dubya administration's years... But eh, I was thinking of this part because lately I've been paying more attention to and reflecting on how our current culture and technology has been effecting our mindsets... I also know I have a tendency towards get-off-my-lawnism in these sort of areas so I try to keep that in mind, but I also don't think it's bad to at least reflect on these things... as it feels like sometimes my mind wonders off in 20 different directions in short spans of time, kinda makes me wonder how much of that is due to the structure of industrialized capitalist life. Not that I would want to go back to times where different races were exotic savages, women were things, and I would've been hella in the closet. Oh, and there would've been no internet.
Anyways, enough vaguely coherent rambling... DID YOU SAY THERE WERE KIDS ON MY LAWN?!?
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Hella in the closet my ass. You'd have been Oscar Wilde, but hopefully with more common sense than to get involved with Bosie.
Dude - "yellow journalism" was coined for newspapers. Especially once Herst et al got involved, they were bastions of sensationalism and life-wrecking lies designed strictly to sell copies and fill dailies. I mean, there were also Nellie Blys, but it wasn't all hunky dory.
That's my problem with the song - I get grumpy whenever the idea is "X technology is causing the following problems with human nature." No, human nature is causing those problems, assuming they're problems. Every era has many of the same complaints, they just blame it on whatever's new at the moment. I was serious about the hair ribbons - back in the day John Chrysostom was blaming women's lack of introspection and piety on them. I'm pretty sure it was just that not everyone is cut out for hours of church.
I certainly don't think texting is helping, and I do think that kids are getting shorter attention spans, but for me, the problem with texts is that they're a more efficient means for indulging the natural preference for speed.* That preference for speed (a.k.a. the real problem) will be there with or without texts. Cutting off the electricity won't suddenly make a society of introspective people who are in touch with nature. It'll make people with short attention spans turn to hair ribbons or something instead. Instead of sensationalism on Fox News, we'll go back to sensationalism in newspapers. I'm certainly not saying that technology brings no new problems, just that the idea of going "back" to some mythical time before technology messed it all up is silly and simplistic. You can't go back to a time period that didn't exist. Besides, cutting wires won't cause "miracles," it'll cause people to have no heat, or access to emergency services, or the ability to buy frozen food.
*The other problem is the adults allowing it and not making them learn to focus on one task at a time.
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And in all fairness, I was only saying that on account of that phase you went through where your catchphrase was "OH GOD. AMANDA PALMER AND I MUST HAVE NO OVERLAPPING IDEAS. IT BURNS."
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Yes, but now my catchphrase is "Sebastian the tobacco-chewing sheep would be alarmed by that decision." (best opening line to a case EVER)
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