|
Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 30, 2009 2:40:26 GMT -6
It burns my butt that everything humanly possible is being done by the Corporate Media to force Americans not to think about anything too deeply, lest they see what's really happening in the world, and how they're being manipulated.
Typical of this ADD/multi-task/don't-think-too-much mentality is the spell-checker on this very forum. If a post is longer than something the average 6 year-old could follow, the spell-checker doesn't work.
Heaven forbid somebody would post something that might take more than 2 minutes to read, and another 2 minutes to actually contemplate.
Most primary posts I make myself on this forum are too long to spellcheck. It pisses me off that instead of deeper thought, we're being forced to handle every daily transaction and interaction by either half-witted text messaging and text message language (bfd, wtf, bff, etc.) , or by cell-phone gibberish.
This society is going to be destroyed by people trying to accomplish every task in this world without any thinking whatsoever, and through short-attention-span-type dialogue encouraged by cell phones, text messaging, and Twitter. (I'm assuming I'm not the only one who's noted the parallel between "twit" and "twitter." It's a service designed to serve the needs of twits. And apparently it does quite well on that count.)
I don't like seeing people conducting their love life and their business affairs on California freeways via cell phone. And I don't like how it stifles any slightly deeper thought in any conversation. It's as if our entire nation's business is being conducted on the level of a bar-room conversation, complete with topless go-go dancers in the background.
All I can say is "wtf" is happening to Americans when their deepest thought can be expressed completely in a twit-brained "Twitter" message?
|
|
|
Post by nailbender on Aug 30, 2009 23:17:40 GMT -6
It's the addiction to "immediate satisfaction". It works well for those peddling debt also.
|
|
|
Post by waltc on Sept 3, 2009 22:42:14 GMT -6
Its terrible alright, from noxious advertising and mind killing reality tv shows to twitter and texting, we have more ways of being distracted and attention deprived than ever in our history.
And what its doing to our kids is just short of criminal since they are the major consumers of corporate created ADD.
But Wall Street and Madison Avenue love it because it creates the the sort of people that make ideal consumers since they no longer think about purchasing decisions or about much of anything and instead on impulse.
Washington loves it because they can create 30 second ad spots that are nothing but content free agit prop and the people will swallow it like its mothers milk. Such ads would be useless with a more literate population that got its information any but from TV.
ULC wrote: It pisses me off that instead of deeper thought, we're being forced to handle every daily transaction and interaction by either half-witted text messaging and text message language (bfd, wtf, bff, etc.) , or by cell-phone gibberish.
Ever read the letters sent between the various founding fathers of the U.S? Most are works of art so to speak compared to what goes on today between so called lettered men.
This society is going to be destroyed by people trying to accomplish every task in this world without any thinking whatsoever, and through short-attention-span-type dialogue encouraged by cell phones, text messaging, and Twitter. (I'm assuming I'm not the only one who's noted the parallel between "twit" and "twitter." It's a service designed to serve the needs of twits. And apparently it does quite well on that count.)
In terms of quality our society is in the toilet. Florence in the 16th century was the size of Lubbock, TX and it produced more world class art and literature than NYC does.
Oh, even the business world is infected as they are big promoters of PowerPoint(which reduces complex subjects and interrelationships to a simple bullet point, thereby giving the end user no real information at all). You abstract to infinity.
Then you have the "executive summary" which is a euphemism for dumbing down a topic down so even a executive with a 30 second attention span can understand it.
And multi-tasking is a sick joke, the business world came up with the term because they are making people do the work of two or more people. And they didn't want to look like a bunch of greedy scum bags working their employees to death so hence the term.
BTW execs(who are the big promoters of this bullshit) don't multitask they delegate all the serious grunt work to underlings
The fact is you can't multi-task well any how(at least not on complex tasks that require a lot of analysis). Go ask a surgeon if he'd like to operate on two people at the same time and see what kind of answer you get.
Twitter and Texting IMO deserve serious scorn. I have never seen such useless technology in my life. Texting seems to be a way for bored morons who've lost the ability to talk to communicate with one another. Twitting is well as ULC says is a service designed to service the needs of twits.
|
|
|
Post by spudbuddy on Nov 23, 2009 9:59:02 GMT -6
Ah, a luvly subject, this. I work in a rather gigantic library, with an unusually overstuffed book collection - though it is never as up-to-date as I'd like it to be... still, when I clue into a topic that really grabs me, I like to ignore as best I can the media frenzy, command a bit of patience, and after awhile, find an intelligent author who took the time to write out, at length, and in-depth, a study of the thing (all the while writing in such a manner as can truly engage me, as a reader.) This is a profoundly intimate exchange. If I move through that book slowly, and with lots of time to reflect on what I'm reading, it might take me a month or more, living every day with the topic, and slowly assimilating it into my conscious sensibility....all the while adding my own reflections and ponderings. (usually several dozen books on the go at once.)
Some would call this academic wallowing. I say psaw to that (in polite company.) The immediacy of the moment only teaches how important is collective memory, and honest response to any particular set of stimuli based on what knowledge and wisdom one has already gathered in their life.
To illustrate: I once had a charming young friend who, while immersed in any immediate moment, could hardly wait to scamper off and write it all down in her journal. (she was young.) I remember admonishing her.....just stay, and witness the whole thing, from start to finish - then put in a little overtime....if it's worth writing at all, it will withstand whatever passage of time in which some detail may be forgotten. The cream eventually rises to the top.
Stupid consumers no doubt carve out at least 50% of our 70% consumption GDP.........and that's a tidy addiction our corporate lords will not relinquish gladly - understandably. That nerve reflex from hand to wallet is righteously primal (and although other epochs seemingly slowed the response time....how much smarter were we then?) - or just poorer? (relatively, and in real fiscal terms.)
I believe these be times fraught with pitfalls for anyone wishing to slow the wheels and come to grips with issues that can't be explained away by a 30-second FOX newscast. From the public down to the personal and private, time-honored mechanisms have evolved throughout human history that have proven capable of withstanding the mob mentality, and the inexorible ebb and flow of conventional bullshit. That "modernity" should shoulder all this aside in the name of (progress?)...is the saddest joke played on anyone with two brain cells to rub together, let alone all those capable of adding measurably collective value to the public forum.
Sure, I get irritated by all those who pre-empt my public space into privatized phone booths (it happens constantly) but on a good day I remind myself that I'm the one actually witnessing the advent of the world's daily life....while they are lost in the vacuous bovine cud-chewing of telecommunication. They just can't be alone, with themselves. Sad, that so many should have so little regard for their own fascinations. They wish to be fascinating to others, just not to themselves.
And to prove a point and add a slice to the humor of the situation....I just can't quite imagine "texting" what I've just written....(who would read it anyway?) Like any homo sapien, I'm rather proud of my ten digits.....writing with just my thumbs feels like devolving back to the Jurassic, or beyond.
|
|
|
Post by unlawflcombatnt on Nov 24, 2009 2:50:55 GMT -6
I'm the one actually witnessing the advent of the world's daily life....while they are lost in the vacuous bovine cud-chewing of telecommunication. They just can't be alone, with themselves. Sad, that so many should have so little regard for their own fascinations. They wish to be fascinating to others, just not to themselves.... Like any homo sapien, I'm rather proud of my ten digits.....writing with just my thumbs feels like devolving back to the Jurassic, or beyond. LOL. Well said.
|
|
|
Post by jeffolie on Nov 24, 2009 15:14:16 GMT -6
The generational difference is becoming enormous. Reading books, magazines and newspapers is declining tremendously among those below 30.
The replacement for timely communications has come since computers became personal computer and really took off with the evolution of the internet followed by cell phones. Today computer, cell phone, social networking based technologies are promoted for pre-schoolers.
There will be no going back to past communications technologies. In part, the new technologies are driven by the ever declining costs and expanding capacities. In part, the new technologies are driven by the social nature of humans that is so easily satisfied with instant wide ranging communications. The demand for simplicistic, immediate interactions has expanded. Lone, independent individual lifestyles have been abandoned and considered unhealthy.
|
|
|
Post by waltc on Nov 25, 2009 0:20:33 GMT -6
There will be no going back to past communications technologies. In part, the new technologies are driven by the ever declining costs and expanding capacities. In part, the new technologies are driven by the social nature of humans that is so easily satisfied with instant wide ranging communications. The demand for simplicistic, immediate interactions has expanded. Lone, independent individual lifestyles have been abandoned and considered unhealthy.
I'm in my 40's and today's generation looks utterly alien to me. They are aliterate, ahistorical and can't stand being alone with themselves for 5 minutes. The prospect of introspection and solitude must truly be terrifying to this sorry lot of humanity given the way many willingly hook themselves up to telecom devices on a 7/24 basis like the Borg from StarTrek. Or worse like the sleepers in "They Live".
I Hear'em in the toilet stall next to me when they are yammering like some idiot from the funny farm; see them on tread mill at the gym yakking and grunting at the same the same time like some sort strange creature from Dr. Moreau's lab; oh and then there are the ones who tweet and yammer whilst shopping - totally oblivious to their surroundings like some zombie; the worst ones are the asshats who end up at Barnes&Noble and literally scream into their handfree phone like some crack head on a binge and oh these clowns never buy books. It seems they just go there to make others think they're literate and not some unlettered peasant with a SUV and a Plasma screen TV.
Heaven forbid this bunch ever experiences a extended power outage and can't yammer like some homeless type on the street corner. Think about it, today's teenagers have never been disconnected in their lives and twenty somethings aren't much better.
|
|
|
Post by xtra on Nov 25, 2009 1:10:15 GMT -6
My grandma was a teacher and lead me to love books, which I in turn did with my boys.
But as boys do they went after sports, music, girls and yes gaming and videos and left the books behind.
But now that there old and in there twentys, this last year they have been hitting the books like crazy. I really don't know what happened to them, my oldest can and does read 200-400 pages a night for weeks on end and I kid you not, they both go to the libraries so they don't have to shell out 30 bucks for a book. And they take their books with them everywhere, its like there nerds or something.
If I knew the answer I would package it up and sell it, cuzz I think its great, and they even tell me how much reading has opened up all kinds of magic for them.
|
|