All of this. Technology is killing creativity. Wonder leads to All The Places, with whimsy and play and and and…
My tw/eenagers lacked the patience to allow me to read your revelatory post all the way through. To be fair, they probably experience it as an assault—it’s not their fault they were born into these ways of being and in spite of efforts made to protect them from roboticity (yes, I made that up), they are externally animated. And defensive.
Thank you for extending the invitation to pause and sit with the not knowing. What sweet liberation…
Beautifully said. And of course it’s not their fault. Believe me I get eyerolls when I suggest we put down the phones and just come up with the answer ourselves. But who knows, maybe the eyerolls end up being the funny part of the story when they retell it to their kids. I think it’s good to just think about having options that maybe we haven’t considered.
I am just seeing your kind response as I have turned off media notifications grace of your invitation to reduce distraction.
“It’s not my fault” is so frequently stated by my tween that the phrase has worked its way into my vernacular. And yes, the eyerolls, which I (perhaps delusionally) translate into an affirmation that my message has landed are stories unto themselves. I’m here for all of the options!
There was a book I listened to a couple of years that touched on this. It was called "Things We Lost to the Internet" (or something to that effect, I didn't feel like resorting to my Goodreads list). In stead of stretching our mind to find that obscure info (name of a song, movie title, etc.,), we fire up the Google machine for that instant gratification. There is a lost skill and appreciation in just let our mind marinate on a questing for awhile to find the answer organically.
While I was frustrated in the beginning that Severance was only once a week, I love it now. First off, we would have finished already and be left with the dumbing down series available (Paradise and Zero Day -- both so bad!). And yes, it's so great when everyone you know is at the same point in the show. I often think about how our kids are going to have so much less of those cultural moments than we did because there isn't the "Who shot JR?!" or Luke and Laura or the last Seinfeld or Cheers or Friends or whatever episode. They will remember memes. :-/
My younger son is home from school right now and he, my husband and I (though I did part of it upstairs in my bedroom because I got Covid-for the anniversary, I guess!) watched the insipid but highly entertaining Running Point. It was a fun binge and we wouldn't have all watched it together, which was really the point, if it had been a once a week thing.
A while ago I read an article about what the author called “digital dementia” — the idea that our over reliance on using our phones instead of using our memory, our memory “muscles” get, well, flabby. After yelling at the article to stop attacking me like that, Charlie and I talked about it have agreed to leave the phones down and wait 15 minutes to see if we can remember (this is for non emergency things like “what do I know that actor from” or “what was the name of that band that sang that song” thing). It’s been like nine months and we are now remembering lot pretty fast, but sometimes it takes 2-5 min. I’m glad we did that!
All of this. Technology is killing creativity. Wonder leads to All The Places, with whimsy and play and and and…
My tw/eenagers lacked the patience to allow me to read your revelatory post all the way through. To be fair, they probably experience it as an assault—it’s not their fault they were born into these ways of being and in spite of efforts made to protect them from roboticity (yes, I made that up), they are externally animated. And defensive.
Thank you for extending the invitation to pause and sit with the not knowing. What sweet liberation…
Beautifully said. And of course it’s not their fault. Believe me I get eyerolls when I suggest we put down the phones and just come up with the answer ourselves. But who knows, maybe the eyerolls end up being the funny part of the story when they retell it to their kids. I think it’s good to just think about having options that maybe we haven’t considered.
I am just seeing your kind response as I have turned off media notifications grace of your invitation to reduce distraction.
“It’s not my fault” is so frequently stated by my tween that the phrase has worked its way into my vernacular. And yes, the eyerolls, which I (perhaps delusionally) translate into an affirmation that my message has landed are stories unto themselves. I’m here for all of the options!
There was a book I listened to a couple of years that touched on this. It was called "Things We Lost to the Internet" (or something to that effect, I didn't feel like resorting to my Goodreads list). In stead of stretching our mind to find that obscure info (name of a song, movie title, etc.,), we fire up the Google machine for that instant gratification. There is a lost skill and appreciation in just let our mind marinate on a questing for awhile to find the answer organically.
While I was frustrated in the beginning that Severance was only once a week, I love it now. First off, we would have finished already and be left with the dumbing down series available (Paradise and Zero Day -- both so bad!). And yes, it's so great when everyone you know is at the same point in the show. I often think about how our kids are going to have so much less of those cultural moments than we did because there isn't the "Who shot JR?!" or Luke and Laura or the last Seinfeld or Cheers or Friends or whatever episode. They will remember memes. :-/
My younger son is home from school right now and he, my husband and I (though I did part of it upstairs in my bedroom because I got Covid-for the anniversary, I guess!) watched the insipid but highly entertaining Running Point. It was a fun binge and we wouldn't have all watched it together, which was really the point, if it had been a once a week thing.
A while ago I read an article about what the author called “digital dementia” — the idea that our over reliance on using our phones instead of using our memory, our memory “muscles” get, well, flabby. After yelling at the article to stop attacking me like that, Charlie and I talked about it have agreed to leave the phones down and wait 15 minutes to see if we can remember (this is for non emergency things like “what do I know that actor from” or “what was the name of that band that sang that song” thing). It’s been like nine months and we are now remembering lot pretty fast, but sometimes it takes 2-5 min. I’m glad we did that!