As I sit here on dial-up speeds after being shaped, I wonder if it’s actually a blessing in disguise.
You know that feeling of waking up, checking mail, facebook, flickr, myspace, twitter, the news and whatever else you might be a part of - and then going nuts on RSS feeds. The sheer volume of information is enormous, and the speed we go through it is made quicker by design, technology and innovations such as RSS itself. Snippets of “all you need to know” instantly given to you on far-reaching and often non-related subjects, quickly loaded for speedy reception.
Site branding has long gone minimal too - the new flickr, the new facebook, RSS feeds have traditionally been largely text based affairs too. The cliché “content is king” is fitting in more ways than one, and thus the bombardment is reaching new extremes. Too much info? We want it, and we’re soaking it up. This aint new thinking - but it is a bit of background into something quite serious.
Herein lies a fundamental human-being problem. A deep rooted genetic one where we can’t cope with this info. Sure we filter, but just think for a second just how much info we really are exposing ourselves too - all flickering like crazy in front of our caffeine-fueled brains (couldn’t resist that cliché). It’s no wonder immune systems, nervous systems and all that are taking a beating.
As I put my old man hat on, I can’t find any reason why society won’t have widespread problems as heavy (and not so heavy) tech users age. Even the topic of aging is ironic in itself, with 40 being the new 30 and adults encouraged to indulge their inner child, for lack of a better descriptor. More and more people are going to go off the rails - and not truly recover.
Luckily the human body and mind is wonderfully elastic - it shapes itself to cope with situations, and muscle memory adapts. Do we cope? We do better than that - we achieve and push forward, conquer and evolve. I’m sure technology helps us to a certain degree, but despite my limited scientific knowledge, I can’t get past the idea that it’s too intensive. The change is too quick. Holes are beginning to appear. Beginning? Hah - they’ve been here all along.. it’s just they’re starting to affect people you know.
What can we do other than lead a balanced life? For many who will read this, the digital space is peoples livelihood, and they love it. It’s almost a case of doing everything opposite when they can. Getting away from a screen. Not sitting down, looking at something close or being inside. Interact with people, get some exercise, you know, live a normal life.
A normal life? What’s that?
Image by Laurilabar.
