The Simpsons

Pinterest, The Musical

The internet is pretty busy these days. (Hey! Over here. Stay with me.) There’s a fierce battle of eyeball real estate going on; somehow, I won you over to my blog. I promise to be quick.

Have you noticed attention spans weakening at a frightening pace? I’m as bad as anyone. Lately, I’ve felt less like Greek Homer and more like Springfield Homer.

SIDE NOTE: I may or may not have just spent 20 minutes on Youtube watching old Simpsons videos.

The internet is just absolute madness: eons and eons of digital stimuli. Remember not knowing the answer to things? That was awkward. What once took a lifetime of information to collect, can now be searched and understood in less than five tweet-seconds.

But I can’t help but wonder about the negative long-term effects of all this big data and short segmented behavior. If things keep going the way they are (and one can only assume it will) humans may just become the most annoying creatures of all time. A Keurig will even be too slow. Maybe that’s why, in the movies, when people discover how to travel through time, they always escape the future and prefer the past. Terminator, obviously, just wants to chill.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a worthy case study and is my favorite example of short-term focus. (more…)

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Smorgasblog—My 200th Post!

Well, well, well. What do we have here? Blog number 200? Watch out, The Simpsons.

Bloggers who post everyday probably hit 200 in their sleep, but for part-time posters like myself, I like to pause and reflect upon arbitrary three-digit milestones.

(Pausing…)

Mmmm. Nice, isn’t it?

(Still pausing…)

*Checks watch*

I think that’s enough pausing.

When I last hit an arbitrary three-digit milestone, I was living in California, working for a music education company, enjoying citrus off the tree, and smiling a lot. Since then, my wife and I have abandoned familiarity in favor of fundamental, paradigm shifting change. We traveled the country and moved to upstate New York; we were attacked by an evil bat in the middle of the night; my face froze off due to something called Polar Vortex; I wrote a play which won an award; we broke veg to eat haggis. It’s been good and bad.

Forward!

And so life goes. Personally, I’m still figuring out what the hell my life is all about–and further, as an extension, what this blog is all about.  (more…)

Pinterest, The Musical

Hey. Over here. Stay with me. The internet is pretty busy these days. There’s a fierce battle of eyeball real estate going on; somehow, I won you over to my blog. I promise to be quick.

Have you noticed the strengthening pace at which attention spans are weakening? I have. My attention span is becoming less like Greek Homer, and more like Springfield Homer.

The internet is just too much for any one person, I’d say. Everything is given to everyone all at once. It’s absolute madness. We have so much information and so little time; we’ve encapsulated data and communication into tiny, bite-size segments. Facebook updates, Twitter feeds, Youtube videos, Instagram pics.

I’m starting to wonder if our over-stimulated, short segmented behavior will bear negative, long-lasting effects on our brains.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a worthy case study, and my favorite example of short-term focus.

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest then let me give you a summary: it’s pictures of things. There’s creative looking things, tasty looking things, funny things… a bunch of things. No set up, no take down, just pictures. It’s like showing up for dinner and finding a steak on the floor.

Since my wife is a Pinterest fan, and I’ve enjoyed some great meals from it, I can’t really hate too much. Some would argue that this mass influx of information, specifically on Pinterest, allows for people to expand their mind by putting to use all these recipes and crafts. Instagram, a Facebook owned social media phone app which also rewards short attention span behavior, is similar to Pinterest in that it motivates its users to experience life by taking pictures of interesting things and sharing them with their friends.

Are we motivating people to do more by giving them smaller, more accessible ways of experiencing life? Is a weakening attention span just a side effect of a more active community?

The Musical

In ten years, I wonder if we’ll even have the patience to explore deep themes in art or build long lasting personal relationships, if we’ll be able to concentrate and solve large problems. (Slippery slope, just a little bit, yes).

Will our books and novels will be filled with only flash fiction? Good God, what will our musicals look like?

ACT 1: Scene 1

Tom: I doth eat at Applebees

Beth: Here, a funny picture of a cat

Albert: I made this

Suzy: Isn’t Ryan Gossling hot?

Charles: “Inspirational quote”

Sally: Vintage jewelry for sale!

Kevin’s Final Thoughts

The internet panders to our short attention spans, yes. In truth though, the internet isn’t evil, Facebook isn’t the devil, and Pinterest isn’t Ticketmaster. They’re just websites and tools we use. Like alcohol, TV, or coffee before it, the internet has no safeguard. It’s us who carry the responsibility of moderation.

We are an internet driven generation who is over-stimulating the same area of its brain on a daily basis. I think it’d be wise to keep this in check, to take a break every now and then and, if possible, reward our sustained attention span with a mental cookie.

Before you go, I’d love to hear your thoughts in response. What’d you think? Stay with me.. no… nooo… noo…

Pinterest 1

Further Reading: Internet Fasting: My Googless Week

TV vs. The World, Jack Bauer vs. My Brain

Recently, Megan and I finished watching the last season of 24. If you’re not familiar with this television program, let me sum up the general plot for you.

There’s bad guys who want to bomb something (or somehow kill a lot of people). There’s Jack Bauer who works with/for/or against Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), depending on government morality. CTU has a terrible human resources department.

Jack will also usually torture, or at least be tortured once per season. Chloe O’Brien, Jack’s right-hand helper, somehow manages to stay alive throughout the series. There’s usually a storyline revolving around a US President. Everyone else dies. Jack always wins. Events occur in real time. 

So I’m done with the series. I’d love to take a whole day to break down all the psychological, philosophical, and political issues I came across watching 24. (more…)