I'm going to make some observations about my life these days. I feel like I have mysteriously acquired attention deficit disorder when I wasn't paying attention.
Hmmm. There's a suspicious statement right there.
I surmise that it, (my life) contains too much information.
Such a simple statement.
It sounds as innocuous as "I have too much mustard on this hot dog." Only thing is that the hot dog (metaphorically speaking) is the size of my house, and the 'too much' in the mustard department consists of three dump truck loads.
And unfortunately, I bring this disaster upon myself.
It's a bitter pill, and I'm choking on it.
Where does this excess of information come from you might ask? 'Ah, there lies the rub', to quote our famous bard.
Everywhere my dear reader, everywhere.
I am exposed to too much information every day. Television supplies a goodly supply. You want to know a little something about tsunamis? Water buffaloes? The toxicity levels of the venom of the Wolf spider? The S&P 500 index of the day? The latest theories about quarks? How much a new DVD player is going to cost you? How many sealskins it takes to make a pair of mukluks? What Bart Simpsons latest smart aleck remark was? How many inches of rain to expect tomorrow? Why eating Cheerios is supposedly so good for your heart? Or the really mostest importantest bit of information that you cannot possibly live without? 'What Not To Wear!'
Yes, it's all there. You can glean this and much, much, much more, to the power of 42, on your good old television. But this is only one avenue, albeit a wide one, upon which the excess of information flows.
Add in radio, magazines, newspapers, and (insert ominous music).... junk mail. Plus something I have seen in at least two places of business lately. Television screens at the checkout counter, advertising various and sundry things. One was at Borders Bookstore, and the other at Safeway.
(I complained at the bookstore. Politely, but I did complain.)
And the final straw the size of a camels LEG..... is the ubiquitous, beloved, hated, touted and reviled.... Internet. That marvel of information spewing interconnected circuitry that we all share.
The very nature of the medium of the internet is conducive to developing a short attention span. Perhaps if they ever get computers to the place where you can curl up on the couch with it like a book, I might change my tune. But as it is now, I cannot read pages and pages of something on the computer, my eyes hurt if I try. So I end up reading a little here a little there and not really getting the whole picture.
This is not healthy.
There is something not right about it.
I remember when the internet consisted of a blue screen with white letters in only one available font and at least for me it was experienced in one of two forms. On line Jewish discussion forums, and email. Good old Eudora email. And I only checked on there once or twice a day because hardly anyone I knew even HAD email, and the discussions took place over days and weeks, not minutes as they do now.
But today we can get instant gratification. Which is fun, but not that great for one's spiritual, intellectual or moral development. And add to this the enormity of what is out there(Google almost ANYTHING and it will come up with 425,934 entries) and you have a pretty potent recipe for addiction.
Some of what is available is good. Like what we are doing right now, exchanging thoughts and ideas, or the joyous marvels of sharing a video of a man juggling with breathtaking skill in time to some old Beatles tunes. Some is undeniably evil. Like gory, soul searing videos of public beheadings, or child pornography.
So I am hear to tell you that in addition to my suspected attention deficit disorder, I am addicted to the internet. (Another bitter pill)
Some of us bloggers (I am not alone here) have taken sabbaticals from too much computer interaction. We know that we should moderate our time spent here. But one is always plagued by the vague but very persistent feeling that if we stay away, we are going to MISS SOMETHING.
It's kind of like a traveling carnival that paradoxically lives in your house. It's stationary, but it travels. It will travel with or without your participation.
Now, here's the tricky part. Part of this carnival involves people I will never meet, doing things I don't care a fig for. But other parts involve people nearest and dearest to my heart, and a wider circle of friends that I care a great deal for. I want that part. I would even go so far as to say that I NEED that part now. But in order to GET to the place in the sideshow that my friends and family live, I have to walk past all the barkers and con men who want me to stop a while and see if I can knock over the wooden milk bottles. Or to be more accurate, to blow up all the colored balls with my stone frog in Zumaland. The price for these diversions is my time.
Funny, I think that I value my time. But if truth be told I will sell it pretty cheap. Checking Little Green Footballs 20 times a day, or reading some blather about what some fool is doing in upstate Idaho, or gazing at the world on Google Earth for half an hour in a daze, is NOT valuing my time.
And don't even get me started on the shallowness of the bits of useless information that we get pelted with every day. My brain is crammed with pieces of crappy trivia. Im choking on it. Sometimes I feel like Im living in a small house stacked to the ceiling with boxes, newspapers, old dish drainers, National Geographics from as far back as 1943, empty water bottles (that might come in handy one day) and old Lean Cuisine containers. NONE of which would I miss if they were summarily hauled away.
But listen. I have to mentally sort through this mountain of stuff every day, to try to find the important things. Like the car registration papers, the pay stubs, and bank statements.
Ahhhrrrrgggg!
Perhaps it is because this internet medium is so contrary to my own nature, which is that of a ruminator, that I stumble so utterly. On the one hand I want the intellectual stimulation of being at the carnival, but on the other I am horrified by the bearded lady or something. It's kind of hard to get a handle on the whole mess. It's so darned BIG for one thing...
Hence this rant.
So what to do about it? That is my dilemma. I'm not sure. I have given serious thought to only doing computer stuff in the morning or evening. And then turn it off the rest of the day. BUT I like being available to family if they happen to IM or email. I even have one friend who emails me from work when she is having a crisis, and I get to talk her down. That's important, right? Being available? Though I have known some people who express some pretty harsh feelings about their cell phone for that exact reason. Are we coming to the place where the idea of 'alone time' is considered to be rabidly antisocial?
The other day, Hub Man said something about getting his own cell phone because he thought he was using his work cell phone too much for personal calls. The very idea caused a cold sweat to pop out on my forehead. The anticipation of wading through the VAST number of cell phone choices and companies and plans had me in an instant panic.
And that's another story. The fact that we have too many choices. Not just in products, but in life. The possibilities are legion. You might think this would be a liberating thing, but for me it is a paralyzing factor.
I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day and the subject of breakfast cereal came up. We were joking about how many kinds there are in the store. How many kinds of cereal are necessary? ..... REALLY. Next time I am at the grocery I am going to count them. I'll bet you a box of Cheerios there are more than one hundred.
There's something not right about that.
But that is a whole 'nother essay.
Well, there you have it. My more than two cents worth of agonizing. And what am I going to do with it?
Why launch it into cyberspace thus adding to the information clutter of course.
There's something not right about that either....
Hmmm. There's a suspicious statement right there.
I surmise that it, (my life) contains too much information.
Such a simple statement.
It sounds as innocuous as "I have too much mustard on this hot dog." Only thing is that the hot dog (metaphorically speaking) is the size of my house, and the 'too much' in the mustard department consists of three dump truck loads.
And unfortunately, I bring this disaster upon myself.
It's a bitter pill, and I'm choking on it.
Where does this excess of information come from you might ask? 'Ah, there lies the rub', to quote our famous bard.
Everywhere my dear reader, everywhere.
I am exposed to too much information every day. Television supplies a goodly supply. You want to know a little something about tsunamis? Water buffaloes? The toxicity levels of the venom of the Wolf spider? The S&P 500 index of the day? The latest theories about quarks? How much a new DVD player is going to cost you? How many sealskins it takes to make a pair of mukluks? What Bart Simpsons latest smart aleck remark was? How many inches of rain to expect tomorrow? Why eating Cheerios is supposedly so good for your heart? Or the really mostest importantest bit of information that you cannot possibly live without? 'What Not To Wear!'
Yes, it's all there. You can glean this and much, much, much more, to the power of 42, on your good old television. But this is only one avenue, albeit a wide one, upon which the excess of information flows.
Add in radio, magazines, newspapers, and (insert ominous music).... junk mail. Plus something I have seen in at least two places of business lately. Television screens at the checkout counter, advertising various and sundry things. One was at Borders Bookstore, and the other at Safeway.
(I complained at the bookstore. Politely, but I did complain.)
And the final straw the size of a camels LEG..... is the ubiquitous, beloved, hated, touted and reviled.... Internet. That marvel of information spewing interconnected circuitry that we all share.
The very nature of the medium of the internet is conducive to developing a short attention span. Perhaps if they ever get computers to the place where you can curl up on the couch with it like a book, I might change my tune. But as it is now, I cannot read pages and pages of something on the computer, my eyes hurt if I try. So I end up reading a little here a little there and not really getting the whole picture.
This is not healthy.
There is something not right about it.
I remember when the internet consisted of a blue screen with white letters in only one available font and at least for me it was experienced in one of two forms. On line Jewish discussion forums, and email. Good old Eudora email. And I only checked on there once or twice a day because hardly anyone I knew even HAD email, and the discussions took place over days and weeks, not minutes as they do now.
But today we can get instant gratification. Which is fun, but not that great for one's spiritual, intellectual or moral development. And add to this the enormity of what is out there(Google almost ANYTHING and it will come up with 425,934 entries) and you have a pretty potent recipe for addiction.
Some of what is available is good. Like what we are doing right now, exchanging thoughts and ideas, or the joyous marvels of sharing a video of a man juggling with breathtaking skill in time to some old Beatles tunes. Some is undeniably evil. Like gory, soul searing videos of public beheadings, or child pornography.
So I am hear to tell you that in addition to my suspected attention deficit disorder, I am addicted to the internet. (Another bitter pill)
Some of us bloggers (I am not alone here) have taken sabbaticals from too much computer interaction. We know that we should moderate our time spent here. But one is always plagued by the vague but very persistent feeling that if we stay away, we are going to MISS SOMETHING.
It's kind of like a traveling carnival that paradoxically lives in your house. It's stationary, but it travels. It will travel with or without your participation.
Now, here's the tricky part. Part of this carnival involves people I will never meet, doing things I don't care a fig for. But other parts involve people nearest and dearest to my heart, and a wider circle of friends that I care a great deal for. I want that part. I would even go so far as to say that I NEED that part now. But in order to GET to the place in the sideshow that my friends and family live, I have to walk past all the barkers and con men who want me to stop a while and see if I can knock over the wooden milk bottles. Or to be more accurate, to blow up all the colored balls with my stone frog in Zumaland. The price for these diversions is my time.
Funny, I think that I value my time. But if truth be told I will sell it pretty cheap. Checking Little Green Footballs 20 times a day, or reading some blather about what some fool is doing in upstate Idaho, or gazing at the world on Google Earth for half an hour in a daze, is NOT valuing my time.
And don't even get me started on the shallowness of the bits of useless information that we get pelted with every day. My brain is crammed with pieces of crappy trivia. Im choking on it. Sometimes I feel like Im living in a small house stacked to the ceiling with boxes, newspapers, old dish drainers, National Geographics from as far back as 1943, empty water bottles (that might come in handy one day) and old Lean Cuisine containers. NONE of which would I miss if they were summarily hauled away.
But listen. I have to mentally sort through this mountain of stuff every day, to try to find the important things. Like the car registration papers, the pay stubs, and bank statements.
Ahhhrrrrgggg!
Perhaps it is because this internet medium is so contrary to my own nature, which is that of a ruminator, that I stumble so utterly. On the one hand I want the intellectual stimulation of being at the carnival, but on the other I am horrified by the bearded lady or something. It's kind of hard to get a handle on the whole mess. It's so darned BIG for one thing...
Hence this rant.
So what to do about it? That is my dilemma. I'm not sure. I have given serious thought to only doing computer stuff in the morning or evening. And then turn it off the rest of the day. BUT I like being available to family if they happen to IM or email. I even have one friend who emails me from work when she is having a crisis, and I get to talk her down. That's important, right? Being available? Though I have known some people who express some pretty harsh feelings about their cell phone for that exact reason. Are we coming to the place where the idea of 'alone time' is considered to be rabidly antisocial?
The other day, Hub Man said something about getting his own cell phone because he thought he was using his work cell phone too much for personal calls. The very idea caused a cold sweat to pop out on my forehead. The anticipation of wading through the VAST number of cell phone choices and companies and plans had me in an instant panic.
And that's another story. The fact that we have too many choices. Not just in products, but in life. The possibilities are legion. You might think this would be a liberating thing, but for me it is a paralyzing factor.
I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day and the subject of breakfast cereal came up. We were joking about how many kinds there are in the store. How many kinds of cereal are necessary? ..... REALLY. Next time I am at the grocery I am going to count them. I'll bet you a box of Cheerios there are more than one hundred.
There's something not right about that.
But that is a whole 'nother essay.
Well, there you have it. My more than two cents worth of agonizing. And what am I going to do with it?
Why launch it into cyberspace thus adding to the information clutter of course.
There's something not right about that either....