Moving Electron Fantasy
First off, the irony of this post is that I first attempted to do this via phone post, but it didn't work. The right settings weren't set up for my cell phone, so I'm posting this a few hours late. My problem was that I didn't have the right technology to make this happen. I didn't jump through all the right hoops and I didn't have complete and constant internet access, IM access and didn't keep myself permanently connected to the rest of the world. I mean, after all, I only had my cell phone on me. How am I supposed to keep up with the world?
We're not. People were not designed to be connected to everything and everyone at all times. Humans need some times alone away from each other. Modern technology, since about the 1800s, has sought to bring people closer together. The telegraph conected people who were far away and in the 1840s when the first intercontinental telegraph cable was laid, connect by seconds places that previously had been seperated by weeks at sea. 100 years later, transcontinental flight was commecialized and now people could be moved almost as easily as information. Now, anyone can communicate with anyone else in the world. If you want, you can call Thailand just to hear what the noodles are like. Of course, now people can tell you any piece of news you "need" to knwo instantly. Do it right, you could tell everyone you know the same piece of news in the same second. All you need is the right technology and the right knowledge and you can broadcast your message. Hell, this blog is a technological marvel. With a few movements of my fingers, I can subject all of you to the random whims of my little brain.
One of the many problems with all this is when people come to rely on this constant flow of information as a part of their lives. I feel like I'm late on this rant because it's coming hours later than I usually write them. I was just not able to write at midnight, as I usually do, because I was out. It's a little scary that had I thought about it, I could have done it ahead of time and no one would have been the wiser. What's worse is that people may have been expecting a rant promptly at midnight. Of course, no one on this list, and as far as I know no one who reads this, is THAT addicted to my ranting. If you are, that's just cool, but most on this list do not have a need to be informed of my opinion all the time. There are plenty of people in this world who would feel lost if they don't have that connection to all the people they know and web they surf all the time.
It's a scary thing when the herd mentality goes electronic. Digital dogs running and running just to keep the pace of the pack. While we are social animals by our nature, we are also individuals, or at least should. Not everyone in this world needs a Sidekick(tm) so they can get e-mails, IMs and pictures while at dinner with someone else. (nudges doitalone. okay, so it was lunch). We should not want to have a constant, interruptive flow of information. Yes, great hacker battlecry, information may want to free, but that doesn't mean we need to deal with it all time. We need to be able to deal with our electronic addictions at our own pace. I write this because I want to, not because I need to. You read this because you want to, not because you want to. Convincing people that they ALL NEED to go out and get the latest greatest sidekick because you can IM and text message while driving.
Yes, driving. If there were no clearer metaphor for selective information input, it's that. There are times when we need to focus on one thing and one thing at a time. We need to be able to say we don't want to run with the digital pack, we don't need a Sidekick(tm) to tell us what the weather is. This does expand to everything else. If we accept ALL information on a subject, we will learn nothing about that subject. There are too many morons out there saying too many things. Too many people making too many problems, in the words of Genesis. We need to be able to sit back, evaluate and judge, not just preceive and receive. We need to be able to judge what's coming in.
40 years ago (to make the Baby Boomers feel old) "Hair" wrote about a moving paper fantasy. We've moved to something even less real. We lose power, all this goes away. If archaelogists discover this society, they're gonna think we stopped about 10 years ago. Nothing substantive, just things we agree are substantive. Money is only worth what we think it is. Some people are only famous and successful because we ll agree that they are successful and popular. We need a little bit more discretion. We need to be able to turn off the TV, turn off the computer and disconnect ourselves from everyone else to remember who we are at the end of the day.
In fact, I'm gonna stop now.
So it is written, so do I see it.
We're not. People were not designed to be connected to everything and everyone at all times. Humans need some times alone away from each other. Modern technology, since about the 1800s, has sought to bring people closer together. The telegraph conected people who were far away and in the 1840s when the first intercontinental telegraph cable was laid, connect by seconds places that previously had been seperated by weeks at sea. 100 years later, transcontinental flight was commecialized and now people could be moved almost as easily as information. Now, anyone can communicate with anyone else in the world. If you want, you can call Thailand just to hear what the noodles are like. Of course, now people can tell you any piece of news you "need" to knwo instantly. Do it right, you could tell everyone you know the same piece of news in the same second. All you need is the right technology and the right knowledge and you can broadcast your message. Hell, this blog is a technological marvel. With a few movements of my fingers, I can subject all of you to the random whims of my little brain.
One of the many problems with all this is when people come to rely on this constant flow of information as a part of their lives. I feel like I'm late on this rant because it's coming hours later than I usually write them. I was just not able to write at midnight, as I usually do, because I was out. It's a little scary that had I thought about it, I could have done it ahead of time and no one would have been the wiser. What's worse is that people may have been expecting a rant promptly at midnight. Of course, no one on this list, and as far as I know no one who reads this, is THAT addicted to my ranting. If you are, that's just cool, but most on this list do not have a need to be informed of my opinion all the time. There are plenty of people in this world who would feel lost if they don't have that connection to all the people they know and web they surf all the time.
It's a scary thing when the herd mentality goes electronic. Digital dogs running and running just to keep the pace of the pack. While we are social animals by our nature, we are also individuals, or at least should. Not everyone in this world needs a Sidekick(tm) so they can get e-mails, IMs and pictures while at dinner with someone else. (nudges doitalone. okay, so it was lunch). We should not want to have a constant, interruptive flow of information. Yes, great hacker battlecry, information may want to free, but that doesn't mean we need to deal with it all time. We need to be able to deal with our electronic addictions at our own pace. I write this because I want to, not because I need to. You read this because you want to, not because you want to. Convincing people that they ALL NEED to go out and get the latest greatest sidekick because you can IM and text message while driving.
Yes, driving. If there were no clearer metaphor for selective information input, it's that. There are times when we need to focus on one thing and one thing at a time. We need to be able to say we don't want to run with the digital pack, we don't need a Sidekick(tm) to tell us what the weather is. This does expand to everything else. If we accept ALL information on a subject, we will learn nothing about that subject. There are too many morons out there saying too many things. Too many people making too many problems, in the words of Genesis. We need to be able to sit back, evaluate and judge, not just preceive and receive. We need to be able to judge what's coming in.
40 years ago (to make the Baby Boomers feel old) "Hair" wrote about a moving paper fantasy. We've moved to something even less real. We lose power, all this goes away. If archaelogists discover this society, they're gonna think we stopped about 10 years ago. Nothing substantive, just things we agree are substantive. Money is only worth what we think it is. Some people are only famous and successful because we ll agree that they are successful and popular. We need a little bit more discretion. We need to be able to turn off the TV, turn off the computer and disconnect ourselves from everyone else to remember who we are at the end of the day.
In fact, I'm gonna stop now.
So it is written, so do I see it.