IPod of cell phone? Elliott Smith or my friend Amanda? Everyday I'm faced with the challenge of choosing one device or another, really just for the sake of passing the time of my five minute walk to school.
Not only has this battle of technology impeded my daily routine but to be quite frank it's really hurt my ability to think about the more important things in life like where I want to be when I'm finished school in a year. I almost feel like I have been abusing technology to help me think in the now as oppose to the more stressful and important things of the future. While Eckhart Tolle might tell me that this is a positive move towards inner peace, I might have to disagree since I can't even manage to think about future assignments or homework until quite literally the night before they are due...
Sitting in class and discussing this idea of technology snacking (having access to tidbits of information throughout the day to satisfy our hunger...) I thought about the consequences of the metaphor, obesity, sickness, etc... I realized that these consequences of the oral junk transcend the metaphor and do apply to our technology in terms of hurting our ability to focus.
Think of our attention spans as being our bodies and then think about education, literature and other mind pressing activities as our exercise and healthy food, then think about technology as being our junk food. The junk food slowly kills our ability to focus- affecting our attention spans, but in moderation we can continue to live healthy lives just like if we moderate our technology snacking we can manage to continue excelling in a focused environment.
Anyway, after blowing my mind with that metaphor I started thinking about how technology has killed the one thing I love, music. But not really the music itself, but the musician him/herself, as musicians can barely find the creativity they need to compete with the sea of other musicians occupying space on the World Wide Web. There is almost too much music content on the internet to hoard throughout the day that it is almost impossible for musicians to remain in our digestive systems for any longer than a few minutes in the context of the fame timeframe. Artists are entering our systems and being expelled like bad Indian food before we are able to really absorb any of their goodness, before we are able to really respect them as musicians and critically understand their creative offering.
Vampire Weekend may have hit the waves last year as one of the most progressive integrative bands to hit our waves, but today they have sadly been pushed into the mundane oblivion of have-been Indie rockstars. I mean, it's almost a curse to be named Indie- artist of the year these days- compare it to being told that you have one year to live.
My point is that however tempting and satisfying tid-bits of technology may be in the short-run, we must be aware of the harmful long-term effects of tehnobesity as our addiction to the now may lead us to the dead-end of creative appreciation.
Not only has this battle of technology impeded my daily routine but to be quite frank it's really hurt my ability to think about the more important things in life like where I want to be when I'm finished school in a year. I almost feel like I have been abusing technology to help me think in the now as oppose to the more stressful and important things of the future. While Eckhart Tolle might tell me that this is a positive move towards inner peace, I might have to disagree since I can't even manage to think about future assignments or homework until quite literally the night before they are due...
Sitting in class and discussing this idea of technology snacking (having access to tidbits of information throughout the day to satisfy our hunger...) I thought about the consequences of the metaphor, obesity, sickness, etc... I realized that these consequences of the oral junk transcend the metaphor and do apply to our technology in terms of hurting our ability to focus.
Think of our attention spans as being our bodies and then think about education, literature and other mind pressing activities as our exercise and healthy food, then think about technology as being our junk food. The junk food slowly kills our ability to focus- affecting our attention spans, but in moderation we can continue to live healthy lives just like if we moderate our technology snacking we can manage to continue excelling in a focused environment.
Anyway, after blowing my mind with that metaphor I started thinking about how technology has killed the one thing I love, music. But not really the music itself, but the musician him/herself, as musicians can barely find the creativity they need to compete with the sea of other musicians occupying space on the World Wide Web. There is almost too much music content on the internet to hoard throughout the day that it is almost impossible for musicians to remain in our digestive systems for any longer than a few minutes in the context of the fame timeframe. Artists are entering our systems and being expelled like bad Indian food before we are able to really absorb any of their goodness, before we are able to really respect them as musicians and critically understand their creative offering.
Vampire Weekend may have hit the waves last year as one of the most progressive integrative bands to hit our waves, but today they have sadly been pushed into the mundane oblivion of have-been Indie rockstars. I mean, it's almost a curse to be named Indie- artist of the year these days- compare it to being told that you have one year to live.
My point is that however tempting and satisfying tid-bits of technology may be in the short-run, we must be aware of the harmful long-term effects of tehnobesity as our addiction to the now may lead us to the dead-end of creative appreciation.
