News is a tricky thing. It can be the good, the bad, and the ugly kind. Some types of news, in my opinion, are a necessary intrusion of our solitude although it can certainly drive some people into a deep level of paranoia. Through an “information black-out” we were asked to experience for a period of 48 hours, I found myself to be much more dependent on the out side world than I had anticipated. There was a moment a couple of hours in that I felt this hint of anxiety, the kind of need to know who is everyone, where and what they’re doing. Coincidentally I found more time to be out side doing something with myself that was kind of conducive to my health. It took me back to my childhood where you left the house at the crack of dawn and didn't come home until the sunset. Went to the park with the dogs and stumbled onto the Coconut Grove Art Festival. It felt weird that I kept reaching to my side checking for messages on my BlackBerry that wasn’t there, oops, forgot I left it at home.
What caught my interest most was the amount of time left over for me to think for myself. It was in a way relaxing not to have to filter the good news from the bad news, deficit this deficit that, why Americans are so over weight, what will Obama’s hair look like after his term as president, what celeb is hooking-up with what other celeb. Is the world running out of things to talk about? I have daily news needs however that I absolutely need. First is the weather, it guides me in the right direction as term affective cover-up gear. Second is traffic, when, where and how can I avoid it. The third would have to be, the morning family check-in. How’s everyone doing and what they're going to do about it. Had I known how cold it was going to get on Sunday, I would have taken a sweater to the park. So to me, news is like what the grumpy old man said about his wife, “can’t live with her can’t kill her”.
What caught my interest most was the amount of time left over for me to think for myself. It was in a way relaxing not to have to filter the good news from the bad news, deficit this deficit that, why Americans are so over weight, what will Obama’s hair look like after his term as president, what celeb is hooking-up with what other celeb. Is the world running out of things to talk about? I have daily news needs however that I absolutely need. First is the weather, it guides me in the right direction as term affective cover-up gear. Second is traffic, when, where and how can I avoid it. The third would have to be, the morning family check-in. How’s everyone doing and what they're going to do about it. Had I known how cold it was going to get on Sunday, I would have taken a sweater to the park. So to me, news is like what the grumpy old man said about his wife, “can’t live with her can’t kill her”.
Like we talked about in class, I really wonder how important taking time to think really can be. How do we process the information we encounter every day? Do we process it? I sometimes think I do, but am not realizing that I am.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happens when the generation that never knew that solitude as children "from the crack of dawn...until sunset" grows up? For people that grew up in the 1990's and before, that solitude was a given. Now, being connected is the norm, not the exception. It may be good or bad; the future is always hard to puzzle out. But I think it will be very different.
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