Is there anything you find yourself doing repeatedly that gets in the way of your happiness?
I spend too much time screwing around with my iPhone, to be honest, on email and Tweetdeck and so on. It makes me feel connected and productive, but it also prevents me from being present in the moment. I met my husband on a long bus ride 15 years ago; we were sitting across the aisle from each other, we had finished our respective newspapers, and we started chatting because we had nothing better to do. I think about that all the time, and how if we were on that bus today, we would never meet at all, because we'd be tip-tapping on our tiny keyboards, totally preoccupied, missing what was right next to us. I also fret about what message I send my kids when they say something to me at the bus stop and I answer "uh huh" with one eye on the keyboard. So I'm trying not to use my iPhone at all while I'm with them, and once this book launch is behind me, I'll take another big step back from the social media.
I spend too much time screwing around with my iPhone, to be honest, on email and Tweetdeck and so on. It makes me feel connected and productive, but it also prevents me from being present in the moment. I met my husband on a long bus ride 15 years ago; we were sitting across the aisle from each other, we had finished our respective newspapers, and we started chatting because we had nothing better to do. I think about that all the time, and how if we were on that bus today, we would never meet at all, because we'd be tip-tapping on our tiny keyboards, totally preoccupied, missing what was right next to us. I also fret about what message I send my kids when they say something to me at the bus stop and I answer "uh huh" with one eye on the keyboard. So I'm trying not to use my iPhone at all while I'm with them, and once this book launch is behind me, I'll take another big step back from the social media.
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Isn't that amazing to think that this woman met her husband on a bus ride? I think she is dead on that for most of today that kind of unadulterated moment of just sitting there looking out the window, being "available", would be few and far between. Our devices (or maybe I should call them vices?) mean we are very plugged in to technology, to information, and to interconnectivity with those far from our current reach. And yet because of that maybe we are losing the chance to touch, to connect with the ACTUAL person sitting right next to us?
I think it is important to consider how these little miracle devices are taking daily miracles right out from under us. Jaren and I like to joke about how the iphone has terminated any sense of mystery in casual conversation. If one of us says something like "I wonder what language they speak in Macao?", we don't speculate, we ask the oracle. If we are freaking out in a movie unable to place what an actor has previously been in, we check the IMBD oracle. We don't let much lie in terms of gaining knowledge,and I can't help but wonder what kind of effect this has on my actual body of knowledge. Is it making me smarter, or is it making me actually value information less--this fact that I think of a question and find the final answer in under 30 seconds?
I'm not advocating junking our prized hand helds, I just think it is worth prioritizing when we use them. It's something to think about and I don't think it's a question the iphone will have the answer for in an instant.
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