This is something I have been thinking about for a while now.
Our 50 year old population has been raised on Sesamie Street and children are starting with cell phones from the time they can use their thumbs to select things on a phone. Moms have used Sesamie Street as babysitters for 50 years now. I think both these things are and have become quite addictive to the population. High speed internet has made computer use more prevalent for platforms like Facebook. People have become addicted to Facebook, yours truly spends a lot of time on Facebook. Those of you who are old enough to remember dial-up speeds will remember how it was so slow that after a while you got bored and turned the computer off, waiting for slow pages to load was frustrating.
I believe what happened with Sesamie Street, cell phones and high speed internet is the fact that our attention span has been diminished to a frighteningly low level. There is not a day that goes by when I am at a traffic light and if it lasts more than 20 seconds someone is checking the phone and then doesn't notice that the light turned green while they are checking the phone. I regularly see people with a cell phone in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. Those same people make such poor turns that they end up in the opposite lanes during their turns. I see people driving down the interstate highways at 75-80 mph and texting messages or reading them.
Our lives have been reshaped by the short attention span we have today. I remember being in school and having hours every night of homework with nothing but silence. Now kids have TV on and cell phones working during their study time. Since retirement I have fallen victim to the constant barrage of videos available on TV or computer. I find it difficult to just shut everything off and spend time in quiet to think and reflect on life in general or to study something I am interested in and want to learn about. It seems our world has become addicted to instant gratification with everything we do. Our thoughts and ideas are dictated to us on media outlets, not on our own quiet contemplation. I fear we are being influenced by what we see on our phone, TV, and internet and not our own thinking. I think it is safe to say, those who are influencing our thinking through electronic media spend a lot of time in quiet thought figuring how to make us want to buy a new car, convection oven, toothpaste, influence our political concepts, make movies that are action-filled.
I think it is time for us and out children to have as much quiet time as possible every day to think and establish our own ideas and decide on what our own life should be instead of allowing others to tell us what to think. Wow, another George Orwell prediction from his 1948 book titled "1984" has come true.
Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.
I believe what happened with Sesamie Street, cell phones and high speed internet is the fact that our attention span has been diminished to a frighteningly low level. There is not a day that goes by when I am at a traffic light and if it lasts more than 20 seconds someone is checking the phone and then doesn't notice that the light turned green while they are checking the phone. I regularly see people with a cell phone in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. Those same people make such poor turns that they end up in the opposite lanes during their turns. I see people driving down the interstate highways at 75-80 mph and texting messages or reading them.
Our lives have been reshaped by the short attention span we have today. I remember being in school and having hours every night of homework with nothing but silence. Now kids have TV on and cell phones working during their study time. Since retirement I have fallen victim to the constant barrage of videos available on TV or computer. I find it difficult to just shut everything off and spend time in quiet to think and reflect on life in general or to study something I am interested in and want to learn about. It seems our world has become addicted to instant gratification with everything we do. Our thoughts and ideas are dictated to us on media outlets, not on our own quiet contemplation. I fear we are being influenced by what we see on our phone, TV, and internet and not our own thinking. I think it is safe to say, those who are influencing our thinking through electronic media spend a lot of time in quiet thought figuring how to make us want to buy a new car, convection oven, toothpaste, influence our political concepts, make movies that are action-filled.
I think it is time for us and out children to have as much quiet time as possible every day to think and establish our own ideas and decide on what our own life should be instead of allowing others to tell us what to think. Wow, another George Orwell prediction from his 1948 book titled "1984" has come true.
Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.
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