One of the attractive things about a blog is that one shares what information one wants to.
For some, that is a daily sort of communication - perhaps about things that are going on but just as possibly about things in general. For others, this can be a more periodic discussion of things as they occur. For some, it is about events far and wide. For others, it is about things that are going on closer to home.
But in almost every case, it is a limited flow of information, discussion by choice. Likely it does not include everything that is going on in their lives, just a small subsection of it.
Compare this with our Media/Social Media world.
For some, everything becomes a thing which must be revealed to the world. Day by day, occasionally hour by hour - as soon as something happens and sometimes as much as something happens, it gets dropped out into the Media-sphere for consumption.
In a way, this seems to reflect how many have become: needing to know everything at all times, they take to constantly being "jacked in" (to steal a phrase from William Gibson), earbuds in the ear and cell phone in hand, watching and listening to the latest update from people all over the world.
Like a blog, however, I remember a different time.
I think it is fair to say - at least for me - that prior to the InterWeb, I did not know what was going on with everyone. Personal sorts of news were limited to conversations in person or by phone or to letters. Scenes of meals or sights far aboard were transmitted via physical pictures or by those now oddest of things, slides.
We did not know everything about everyone. In fact, I suspect that at that time the idea of knowing so much would have shocked us: Why do we need to know this? Why am I so consumed about the lives and issues of others?
Now, of course, the question would be "Why are you not consumed about the lives and issues of others?"
I have not been able to completely abandon social media - my family uses it as a communication tool - but my visits to everything except Insta-Pic have rapidly dwindled. In a way, it can be a bit of shock when I go to The Book of Face and read about things that have occurred in people's lives, sometimes sad or tragic things. There is no other way now, it seems, to communicate about such things.
Do I miss being this much out of the know? Not really; I can barely keep track of the friends I do have in real physical life and the few that are far away, let alone people that are far and away that I have never met.
It does make me question though: if we suddenly all just started having to mind our own business and not know everything that is going on everywhere with everyone, would that be such a bad thing?
An enforced digital rest just ended for me. I find it hard to go back to what I used to read. The quiet in my head and heart are pleasant. I read fewer on the roll, now. Only those that make the cut (uplifting, thoughtful).... maybe a few others.... The harvest is near, the workers are few.... the day is long spent.
ReplyDeleteSTxAR - If I am honest, I probably read fewer blogs than I used to as well. Some of it really is a time thing, but some of it also is that those that tend to deal with current events are less and less meaningful to me, if for no other reason than my own reaction to them.
DeleteI have had friends that have done digital fasts - although not enforced, like yours. I'm not sure I could ever do a complete one, but I am winding my time down overall.
Other than leaving remarks here and on one or two other blogs there is no Social Media presence for myself. I don't live in a home with glass walls so there's no "Look at me! Look at me!".......(snort).
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - Oddly enough, I thought about your comment on my walk this morning. I realized that my Insta-Pic presence is largely not updates on the lives of others but art, interests, or animals that I enjoy (even much less so on The Book of Face).
DeleteHow odd to realize I do not use social media at all as intended.
Perhaps such deep, personal details used to be a filter of importance. A measure of not only what one determined important in their life, but who in turn merited the sort of trust requisite to learn these close and personal things. Once every little detail of every passing person becomes The Most Important Thing, You Won't Believe This, Drop Everything and Look At Me Now Now NOW!, the mind grows numb to the impact.
ReplyDeleteEspecially for those... shall we say, perhaps wired differently? Having been in a room with family or co-workers doomscrolling their phones, I cannot help but consider the overwhelming volume of what I hear all sounds so tedious and tiresome. Insipid, uninspired attempts at comedy; half-hearted summaries of history and the better souls that made it, distorted by omission and delivered by the least effort of synthetic narration; anyone and everyone, simultaneously, loading the digital chamber for a game of Intarweb Roulette in the hopes of their moment of glory.
I already struggle to connect with those around me. Why ought I spend what little care and attention I can muster on such drivel? And when those around me are fiddling around on their phones while a movie or show is playing on the larger screen... I just want to scream "Pick one!" in light of the Balkanization of one's attention span.
P_P - "Perhaps such deep, personal details used to be a filter of importance. A measure of not only what one determined important in their life, but who in turn merited the sort of trust requisite to learn these close and personal things." That is exactly the thing, I think. Once upon a time there were things we did not talk about outside of a group of people we considered trusted enough to do so, or shared our lives with those who shared our lives with us. The tables have turned: likely we are thought odd if we do share our lives publicly.
DeleteThe things I find most engaging are the handmade sorts of things: Art, history recreations by people actually doing the work of recreating, garden railroads (of all things). In that sense it is an ability to see things I would likely never seen.
But most of it: as you say, the Roulette of Momentary Glory, things that will pass into the memory of InterWeb only to be forgotten and overwritten or purged.
We have become so distracted we need distractions from our distractions.
Maybe people need the distraction from their own lives. Or they're incredibly bored? Then too, human nature loves gossip. And it loves to be the center of attention. I have to say I prefer having a life filled with useful things to do and be interested in.
ReplyDeleteLeigh - Distraction may be a good point: most people seem to endure large parts of their lives. Showing themselves doing things (or watching others) perhaps gives the appearance of something else. But that is something that people have been doing as long as there have been people: spending frivolously to appear wealthy, acting as if they owned the world.
DeleteWe do love to be the center of attention.
I wonder if a lot of it simply has to do with as you have said, have a life you are satisfied with in what you do and who you know and who you are interested in?
We didn't know what we had in the world before all these distractions.
ReplyDeleteSani, you are really right. Even now if were to try to recreate by not checking in or going online, it would still be different because in the back of my head I would know all that noise is still out there.
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