Saturday, November 30, 2013

Social networking

We are all connected. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Bing, blip, ping and ring. We are inundated with new information, new images, new messages, new everything all the time. We don't need to think too hard, to reflect, digest or sit still with our thoughts. Nope. There's so much distraction why would we ever need to?

There is now a growing discipline of philosophy and pop psychology on the subject and articles are popping up everywhere from mainstream magazines to highbrow literature. It's not just a phase folks. 

We all experience the conflict of the convenience against the mind numbing, social disturbances of what technology brings. I feel (I hope) the backlash will come soon and there will be a shift in the way we engage with one another and with our machines. I'm guilty of the exact things I criticize. And I am working hard on changing the addictive behavior and sitting without distraction. Walking down the street and observing. Observing. I think that is an undervalued art form.

I walk down the sidewalk & watch as dozens of zombies wobble and zig zag down the street unaware of their surroundings, of the potential dangers, the small details, the subtle beauty of the way the light hits a street corner or an old man holds a smile. What is our present state if we are all constantly in a frenzy of techno trances obsessed with the future? And in turn, what becomes our life when the beautiful moments, the human to human connections, the pauses and reflections become overtaken by our devices. What is it we are hiding from?


(Is this what we want to teach our children?)