So I've been reading this book
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman for a class I'm in, and there's one passage I really liked that I wanted to post in here. Postman's book is about the utter irrelevance and abundance of information on television, now even more so with the brand new technology of the internet, and how this all started with the telegraph. Here's the passage:
"...The telegraph may have made the country into 'one neighborhood,' but it was a peculiar one, populated by strangers who knew nothing but the most superficial facts about each other.
Since we live today in just such a neighborhood (now sometimes called a 'global village'), you may get a sense of what is meant by context-free information by asking yourself the following question: How often does it occur that information provided you on morning radio or television, or in the morning newspaper, causes you to alter your plans for the day, or to take some action you would not otherwise have taken, or provides insight into some problem you are required to solve?...Most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action.
...You may get a sense of what this means by asking yourself another series of questions: What steps do you plan to take to reduce the conflict in the Middle East? Or the rates of inflation, crime and unemployment? What are your plans for preserving the environment or reducing the risk of nuclear war? What do you plan to do about NATO, OPEC, the CIA, affirmative action, and the monstrous treatment of the Baha'is in Iran? I shall take the liberty of answering for you: You plan to do nothing about them. You may, of course, cast a ballot for someone who claims to have some plans, as well as the power to act. But this you can only do once every two or four years by giving one hour of your time, hardly a satisfying means of expressing the broad range of opinions you hold. Voting, we might even say, is the next to last refuge of the politically impotent."
Ironic, however, that I am posting this excerpt in an online journal... Seriously, though, why do we think about these things? Yes, Heath Ledger is dead, but a thousand other people also die each day, many from starvation, poor living conditions, or from living in a country of constant conflict. What does his death do to me that any other death would not? The only effect it might have is a delay in the release date of the new Batman movie, another form of useless entertainment.
And how many of you read, or even skimmed over, that passage? We add people to our friends list and read their journals to see what's new in their lives, but the moment they post something longer than a couple paragraphs, our short attention spans are quickly diverted to something more exciting or flashy. Television has trained us to be narcissistic, impatient, and concerned only with trivia. Princess Adelaide's whooping cough. Lindsay's new stint in rehab.
You might call me jaded or disillusioned, but I say quite the opposite. For once, I can actually see.
I hate narcissism. It's why people are so obsessed with the media world. It's because it's so user-centric; it's all made for you. No matter what you're interested in, there is a channel on TV for it, an online forum on the web discussing it, and at least 10 pages of google-found links related to the topic, and they're all put there just for you. The real world was not put here for you, or for anyone else. It is just there. Go to Saskatchewan, Canada, in the middle of nowhere, where your cellphone doesn't work and there are no humans for miles, and you will realize that the real world was not made for your amusement.
I don't want to be here.
creative
dorky
loved
ditzy
gloomy
awake
contemplative
festive
thirsty
energetic
tired
anxious