You can click here for a blown up version of this. If it becomes too cumbersome to read, I might retype it on my iBook for you guys. Just some stuff I thought about today.
You ask some great questions, Johanna. I'm going to have to let this percolate for a little bit. It's a great question. I think a certain amount of what you're speaking of is nostalgia, but I also believe that we are getting better at bringing our digital and analog worlds together.
likemind, for instance, would not exist were it not for this wonderful blog world we all spend so much time in. However, it would also not exist if those same people didn't put the effort forth to show up at 8am on a Friday morning. The lines are blurring.
At the same time, I think the internet is opening us up to new ways of thinking. People are combining fashions in ways no one ever imagined. Call it the long tail or whatever else you want, but the plethora of choice seems to have made people more comfortable with following their own ways.
Hope that makes some sense. Will think about it some more. Thanks for the great entry, inspiring stuff!
i like your stream of thought- I just got a pocket PC and am more connected than ever before and have access to information at my fingertips. I like the way it allows me to be so much more efficient in my work life so that I can spend more time wrestling with my little boys, writing letters by hand, taking pictures ( that's a whole other discussion- digital vs film) and spending time with friends.
Even though I consider myself fairly information saavy, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the plethora of choices and amount of information I'm inundated with daily.
Instead of subscribing to a million blogs in bloglines, I know people who prefer Firefox's live bookmarks to selectively limit their reading to their top few blogs. Instead of having thousands of songs on my ipod, I'm considering selecting 10 new albums/bands that I want to really get into. I also sometimes wish I were spending Sunday afternoon deep in a book, instead of catching up on all the articles that have accumulated in the past week.
I wonder whether feeling overwhelmed with choice is more common in the planning discipline which relies on being able to navigate through massive amounts of information. It also seems that by wanting to embrace richness over choice, we're exercising a self-rebellion against technology. Similar arguments have been made with radio, TV, cellphones infringing on the richness of life, but few people would deny that they've made our lives better.
Perhaps as Noah mentioned, it's an an increased sense of nolstalgia linked to our world changing increasingly faster than ever. But I'm with you. I guess with so many choices, individual experiences are less special. Although I could never live without the choices enabled by the internet, we should also seek out the rich experiences that are unique to the analog world.
You ask some great questions, Johanna. I'm going to have to let this percolate for a little bit. It's a great question. I think a certain amount of what you're speaking of is nostalgia, but I also believe that we are getting better at bringing our digital and analog worlds together.
ReplyDeletelikemind, for instance, would not exist were it not for this wonderful blog world we all spend so much time in. However, it would also not exist if those same people didn't put the effort forth to show up at 8am on a Friday morning. The lines are blurring.
At the same time, I think the internet is opening us up to new ways of thinking. People are combining fashions in ways no one ever imagined. Call it the long tail or whatever else you want, but the plethora of choice seems to have made people more comfortable with following their own ways.
Hope that makes some sense. Will think about it some more. Thanks for the great entry, inspiring stuff!
johanna
ReplyDeletei like your stream of thought- I just got a pocket PC and am more connected than ever before and have access to information at my fingertips. I like the way it allows me to be so much more efficient in my work life so that I can spend more time wrestling with my little boys, writing letters by hand, taking pictures ( that's a whole other discussion- digital vs film) and spending time with friends.
I like where you're going w/ this Johanna.
ReplyDeleteEven though I consider myself fairly information saavy, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the plethora of choices and amount of information I'm inundated with daily.
Instead of subscribing to a million blogs in bloglines, I know people who prefer Firefox's live bookmarks to selectively limit their reading to their top few blogs. Instead of having thousands of songs on my ipod, I'm considering selecting 10 new albums/bands that I want to really get into. I also sometimes wish I were spending Sunday afternoon deep in a book, instead of catching up on all the articles that have accumulated in the past week.
I wonder whether feeling overwhelmed with choice is more common in the planning discipline which relies on being able to navigate through massive amounts of information. It also seems that by wanting to embrace richness over choice, we're exercising a self-rebellion against technology. Similar arguments have been made with radio, TV, cellphones infringing on the richness of life, but few people would deny that they've made our lives better.
Perhaps as Noah mentioned, it's an an increased sense of nolstalgia linked to our world changing increasingly faster than ever. But I'm with you. I guess with so many choices, individual experiences are less special. Although I could never live without the choices enabled by the internet, we should also seek out the rich experiences that are unique to the analog world.
(Whatsup Noah!)
Gah, it just ate my post.
ReplyDeleteI like this typewriter.
Nostalgia is very powerful, even when it is something we ourselves didn't live (such as one's father's typewriter, or old jewelry).
As for technology, the other night when the power was out, and I was alone in my apartment, I didn't know what to do with myself with no electronics.