So I think it's got something to do with, that we're just---we're absolutely dying to give ourselves away to something. To run, to escape, somehow. . . . And so TV is like candy in that it's more pleasurable and easier than the real food. But it also doesn't have any of the nourishment of real food. . . . What has happened to us, that I'm now willing--and I do this too--that I'm willing to derive enormous amounts of my sense of community and awareness of other people, from television? But I'm not willing to undergo the stress and awkwardness and potential shit of dealing with real people.
And that as the Internet grows, and as our ability to be linked up, like--I mean, you and I coulda done this through e-mail, and I never woulda had to meet you, and that woulda been easier for me. Right? Like, at a certain point, we're gonna have to build some machinery, inside our guts, to help us deal with this. Because the technology's just gonna get better and better and better and better. And it's gonna get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable, to be alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but want our money. Which is all right. In low doses, right? But if that's the basic main staple of your diet, you're gonna die. In a meaningful way, you're gonna die.
SB was having some of these same thoughts while waiting in the doctor's office yesterday, watching how many people were texting or talking on their cell phones, in their own worlds. Quite frankly, it made me feel sort of sick and creeped out.
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8 comments:
Been thinking this a long time. I am definitely more comfortable not dealing with people. Hell, I don't even talk on the phone if I can avoid it. I don't even know how to make small talk any more.
Jeannie,
I understand and have the same tendency, but I fight it, because I believe it's important to have human contact.
Love you so!
I am with you SB. But the Dead Kennedy's said it... 'Give me Convenience or Give me Death'...
People have lost contact with being a human BEING. I think eventually humanity will lose their ability to commune with the life around them, sort of like in the movie 'Wall E' but with the consequence of movies like 'Blade Runner' (never read the book) or 'Brazil',literature like '1984' or 'A Brave New World'.
I think many people are like Jeannie (not pickin' jus' sayin'), where the would much rather have relationship without the emotional commitment or connection of actual contact. That is frightening to me, because as technology evolves, humanity is deolving both spritiually and mentally. (clink, clink... my two cents)
I would rather cuddle up with my wife than the TV or the computer.
what beautiful and succinct thoughts. personal encounters will in-the-future be classed in the same league as spiritual epiphanies are nowadays.
Iknow. There has to be a balance. I can't hate these screen images because look- they brought me you. But this constant jibber-jabber of Tweets and stuff is just...drool. Something.
Danny,
I think you may be quite right.
Love,
SB
Ms. Moon,
Yes, it is a very fine line.
Love you!
Awesome quotes, thanks.
Every time I'm with a bunch of strangers who are texting I think about Fahrenheit 451, you know, where they never read, they just have walls of tv all around them, and keep buds in their ears, but they are so starved for human contact they keep fidgeting with themselves, rubbing their coats, stroking their own hair, etc.
In other news, thanks for this reminder...
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