Shut up, shut up, just stop talking
So I want to build a house, right? And I have a hammer and a saw. And some nails and levels and right angles and cement and shit. Then, you bring me over [du-du-dun] a screwdriver. This opens a whole new world of possibilities for me. Not to mention making the IKEA furniture I got for the house warming party a lot more practical.
Notice, at no point in time have I called you an idiot or resented you for giving me a screwdriver.
Say I want to communicate with people. I have a postal system, a telephone system, a voice, and a couple of other tools. You bring me...instant messenger, facebook, email, private messages on a variety of forums and media, etc. All the sudden, these are 'false' and 'bad' means of communicating. "They contribute to the hectic pace of modern day life, fuelling the culture of disconnection".
If you try to build your entire house with the screwdriver, you're going to get nothing done.
If you at any point think that things that you opt-in to use, and that are additional tools in your arsenal are hindering you in some way, you are a neo-luddite tech-tard suffering from gross mental incompetence as well as a poor understanding of basic mathematics and logic. I'm so sick of hearing this stupid media prejudice. Books == good, video/screen == bad.
I'll bet there was this guy, in ancient Egypt, who ranted just as ignorantly against the creation and distribution of papyrus. And writing. And general literacy. There's a reason we have other tools. Instant messaging is awesome for quick-jots of ideas or confirmation of departure. Email is a wonderful way of maintaining a conversational log without the hassle of stenography. Facebook lets you find old friends and talk to family that lives across the country, or even coordinate how their Christmas visit is going to work. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video is worth 100,000. This is basic logic. If the only 'good' media is face to face speech...why do you write letters? When you want your congressman to do something, or when you want to really sincerely tell someone something? Why do you call your girlfriend, rather than just waiting until the next time you see her, or writing her a note, or a text?
These are tools. How you use a tool is determined by you. If you are one of these people whose life is 'so hectic', you might consider opting out of some of the commitments you've made. Prioritizing your mental health and harmony, rather than pleasing-people yourself to death. If something doesn't make your life easier, don't use it. Television is a great example, I rarely use it, other than to display netflix or video games. It's not because I think it will rot your mind. It's because I self-select for media I enjoy (and probably control, to a lesser extent). Blaming your choices, decisions, social commitments, et al on someone or something else is intellectually dishonest and borderline victim-culture enabling.
"Mindfulness" or "meditation" or "inner peace" can as easily (and is as commonly, judging by the number of YouTube videos on the subject) be found on a computer screen as in a Zen rock garden. Stop blaming your choices on other people. Or nebulous 'modern society' crap. It is 2015, more than any other time in history, more people have more choice in how they live their life than ever before. Disempowering yourself is one thing, self-harmful and self-limiting and therefore ugly. But when you propagate your ignorance and metathesiophobia as 'truth', you start harming other people, and in fact, lowering the bar for willful ignorance and actual, useful, progressive change.
K.