Hello. I'm tired. You too?
I miss being young and opinionated.
(Sure, a lot of those opinions were terrible...)
Okay, rephrase that: I miss sitting down to a blank page and not stalling out. Never having to wonder, "What do I write about?"
I'm not inclined to blame short-form social media for this. Microblogging is basically glorified texting, or a disorganized chatroom, by which I mean it's always been a thing in some form or another, the immediate and ephemeral and extremely interactive social social media. Twitter didn't invent it, and millions knowing only Twitter without having dipped their toes into ICQ or AIM or IRC first, isn't a sign of declining attention spans - just increased visibility and availability.
I don't want to blame the media, either. Before Tiktok was accused of ruining attention spans, parents were griping about comics and critics were grumbling about MTV editing. For every valid observation about changes to pacing in older films and gripe about modern short show seasons, there's a glaring lack of acknowledgement that modern films and movies are made for a generation with a pause button and no fear of using it. Also, frankly, with the big push to binge-watch everything, it feels disingenuous to complain that nobody has an attention span anymore.
I'm just tired. I'm too tired to give a rant about something important the attention it deserves; I'm too tired to casually run off at the mouth about some randomness in passing.
I'm too tired to sit down and just artist's way my way to six pages of stream of consciousness. Let what flow? My head is a jar with a couple of pennies in it - there's nothing to spill except exhaustion.
I miss having Deep Thoughts that I just had to inflict on the world, usually in writing because my family was tired of my bullshit.
Hell, maybe it's just January.
(Sure, a lot of those opinions were terrible...)
Okay, rephrase that: I miss sitting down to a blank page and not stalling out. Never having to wonder, "What do I write about?"
I'm not inclined to blame short-form social media for this. Microblogging is basically glorified texting, or a disorganized chatroom, by which I mean it's always been a thing in some form or another, the immediate and ephemeral and extremely interactive social social media. Twitter didn't invent it, and millions knowing only Twitter without having dipped their toes into ICQ or AIM or IRC first, isn't a sign of declining attention spans - just increased visibility and availability.
I don't want to blame the media, either. Before Tiktok was accused of ruining attention spans, parents were griping about comics and critics were grumbling about MTV editing. For every valid observation about changes to pacing in older films and gripe about modern short show seasons, there's a glaring lack of acknowledgement that modern films and movies are made for a generation with a pause button and no fear of using it. Also, frankly, with the big push to binge-watch everything, it feels disingenuous to complain that nobody has an attention span anymore.
I'm just tired. I'm too tired to give a rant about something important the attention it deserves; I'm too tired to casually run off at the mouth about some randomness in passing.
I'm too tired to sit down and just artist's way my way to six pages of stream of consciousness. Let what flow? My head is a jar with a couple of pennies in it - there's nothing to spill except exhaustion.
I miss having Deep Thoughts that I just had to inflict on the world, usually in writing because my family was tired of my bullshit.
Hell, maybe it's just January.