Well, it's coming up on the anniversary of a full year of this blog (in April) during which I have not posted an entry.
Too much has happened in the intervening time to write about. Most bloggers would be thrilled by this wealth of events, given that these are the stuff of which life (and hence, blog entries) are made. I refer, of course, to the three Rs: Remarriage, Retirement and Relocation.
During this embarrassingly long interval of hyperactivity with no literary output, the phenomenon of social networking has taken a stranglehold on the web. Facebook in particular has become as daily an addiction for the generations behind mine as Days of Our Lives is for my own age group (66+). Twitter likewise, is filled with Tweets, or is it Twits? And these are only two components of a whole movement, abetted by the ubiquitous cell phone/camera/movie theatre/game parlor that has become a tool for the upheaval of entire societies and cultures.
To post to a blog requires reflection, introspection and above all, time. Where did all that go?
In the old days (a couple of years or so ago) it would take, at a minimum, ten or fifteen minutes to sit down and write anything on a blog. Even assuming the computer was already running, there was the ritual of having to log onto the blog site, run the editor, type up the entry, proofread it, and then post it (and in many cases, correct it post haste). Blog hosting companies soon adopted the idea of simplifying posting by allowing direct posting from an email message, and now, of course, you can post voice messages directly from your phone.
Other writers have mentioned Attention Deficit Disorder as a symptom of our times: some call it The Demand for Instant Gratification, and the doddering amongst us find Impatience to be a sufficient description of the trend. My generation experienced it mainly on three occasions: Christmas morning, sermons, and the last week of school.
If it is true that humanity is speeding up and becoming more interconnected at the same time, there is a down side to this trend, which has already shown up in, for example, Facebook. Some call it over-sharing. There's TMI (too much information). The stretching of privacy boundaries until they snap. The arbitrary changing of corporate policy or rules while the game is on. The inattention to craftsmanship and detail. The elevation of the trivial to the consequential.
Along with the ratcheting up of the pace and triviality of mass communication (and to think that most of this junk is now stored and indexed and retrievable), comes an overwhelming need to limit intake and filter content. It gives me pause to think about the hours of my life that I have irretrievably wasted on reading comments that follow even a New York Times piece, or a home improvement site. It becomes an addiction, like gold mining: panning the muck for that valuable gem of insight or information that can instruct me, enrich my experience, or save me effort, when the odds against success are those of a Reno blackjack table. Even the search engines are swamped.
When I ponder my tendency to waste these hours (which are now more available, given that I finally smartened up and retired), I conclude that I'm as needy for community wisdom as a teenager is for social interaction. The difference is, a younger person has little difficulty in mastering the technology, while I can't seem to hit the mute button on the remote without changing the channel or turning the damn thing off.
I cannot multitask, talk on the phone while watching TV, boil water unless I remain in the kitchen, or converse with an Android. So what are my options? This post started an hour ago. I have only one option: to go from Point A to Point B in a single, straight line, pausing only to deal with spelling, grammar and composition. I suppose that during this interval, a million or more Tweets have flown by , and another 3/4 of a million people have logged onto Facebook.
As I gaze at the Ohio River in flood, a slowly turning raft of sticks, twigs, branches, bottles, tires, styrofoam and plastic revolves just offshore. Occasionally an object will break free from the vortex and rejoin the current, only to become entrapped in the next whirling mass.
The burden of churning flotsam reminds me of social networking.
5 comments:
Being in the younger generation, I find much wisdom and similar complaints about our future. People have lost the art of simply sitting down together and conversing openly face to face. I can't count the number of times I see my peers sitting face to face with their blackberries in hand half paying attention to it and to the person they are supposed to be having lunch with. It saddens me that this is the world my children are inheriting. I'm heartened that there are others like me who are trying to turn off their phones and laptops and tune into their real world surroundings. Speaking of which, something is boiling on the stove! :)
Thank you. I enjoyed this post very much. I have just now discovered your blog. I am very interested in "the way things used to be" and a critical view of the benefits and effects of technology. I think there might be a technology bubble. What do you think? Might it collapse as we realize the neglect of our humanity the screens have caused us? -Kate
P.S. I am only 49
Thank you. I enjoyed this post very much. I am interested in a truthful and critical discussion of technology. I think there might be a technology bubble. Might there be a collapse as we discover how the screens have neglected our humanity?
-Kate, age 49
Of course, the way things used to be are different for each of us, but since I wrote that entry, one of the profound effects of tweeting and texting has been the "Arab Spring", not to mention the current "Occupy Everywhere" movement. History will show whether these events have radically changed us for the better (an outcome devoutly to be wished).
If we are in a bubble, it is a very large and prolonged one. Even though the elevation of St. Steven (Jobs) will dissipate, the struggle for dominance of the social networks will continue to produce yet more hardware and software innovations by the big four (Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft) aimed at raising their earnings through nuanced, targeted, unavoidable advertising.
And yes, the bubble may collapse, but because it is so closely bound to consumerism, I think it will take a generation who are disillusioned enough by the fleeting rewards of instant gratification to push the pin into it. Do you see that happening any time soon?
BTW, Kate, I apologize for having to vet comments before publishing them. It makes it look as though I don't care what people think or say, but the real blame lies with the spammers who surf blogs looking for open comment opportunities to show off their products or their igno-rants.
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