Filed under: Life, The Internet, The World | Tags: facebook, myspace, technology, The Internet
“All Things Considered, February 11, 2009 ·
Most people hate flying. I love it. Nothing makes me happier than a long flight — the longer, the better. I once flew nonstop from New York to Bangkok: 17 hours of pure bliss. I packed two books and actually read them. I stared out the window and actually had … thoughts. Some of my best ideas take flight at 35,000 feet. It could be the thin air up there, but I think there’s another reason: disconnection. No e-mail, no cell phones. No guilt, either, because at 35,000 feet I am “offline.” Don’t you love that word, offline? I do. But it is about to go the way of other cherished expressions, like “out of the office ” and “on vacation.”
Every culture has its out-of-bounds venues, circumscribed places and times in which the normal demands of society no longer apply. Buddhist monks on meditation retreats, college students on spring break. Instinctively, we humans recognize the value of tuning out the world, at least for a while. We know we’ll return refreshed and ready to cope again.
These off-limits spaces, though, have been steadily shrinking as technology’s reach has expanded. Oddly, we don’t put up a fight, but rather embrace this erosion of our leisure space. Many people love their BlackBerrys and iPhones, viewing them as tools of liberation rather than what they really are: electronic tethers, like those ankle bracelets that some convicts have to wear. The airline cabin represents the last refuge from ubiquitous connectivity, the last place where we are forced, for better or worse, to be with ourselves … and our thoughts.
But, I hear the technothusiats say, just don’t log on. No one’s forcing you. You can always opt out. If only. Every technology, from the car to the cell phone, starts out as optional and soon becomes mandatory. We can’t opt out, lest we be labeled an out-of-touch Luddite or, worse, old.
But, the technothusiats coo, onboard Internet access will be so convenient. Those who can log on at 35,000 feet will enjoy a “competitive advantage.” Perhaps, but the first person to send a package Federal Express also enjoyed a competitive advantage — for about two seconds. Once everyone can send a package overnight, the advantage disappears, and all that remains is the expectation.
So, please, airline executives, I beg of you: Don’t do it. You’ve already deprived me of leg room, decent food and dignity. Don’t take away my peace of mind, too.Eric Weiner is author of The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, now out in paperback.”
I actually read this post in someone else’s blog but I was fond of it so I decided to include it in mine :P I must say, I enjoy this man’s insight. I never realized how great I feel when I don’t go online for a long time. It’s really refreshing to tune out everyone, and focus on my moments, in my world. It kind of makes me want to get rid of my screen name, swear off Myspace, and lock my computer somewhere that is not easily accessible. For now, I’ll just delete the Facebook app off of my iPhone.
Something that I can’t stand is when I drop my food on the floor. It’s not the mess that bothers me because I usually just drop a cracker or a grape or something, so there really isn’t any mess to clean. What irks me is when you drop something that you can’t pick up and eat again. I am a strict believe in the 5 second rule (and I’m even more lenient because I saw on FOX news that it takes about 30 seconds for bacteria to really get to it.) For example, I was just eating this pasta dish that had little bowties and vegetables in it. As I was about to put a forkfull into my mouth, a single bowtie broke free and fell on to the carpet. I would not eat this bowtie because it was moist and hit the floor and acquired a jacket of cat hair and dust and other mysterious aspects of the carpet. So I picked it up, put it to the side of my plate, and finished my meal. Here’s the problem: I keep having the urge to eat that single piece. I won’t, because it’s furry, but it just sits on my plate, all by itself, staring at me. This small lifeless piece of pasta is mocking me because I cannot eat it. And it sucks.
Highschool is such an interesting part of life. The drama, the hard feelings, the copied homework assignments, the snowdays, the teachers that give you a hard time, the fights in the hallways, .. it’s all insignificant in the long run, yet why is it that those aspects of highschool are so strangely important? I’ve always been the person to look at the bigger picture, I don’t really know how not to be that person. But the fact of it all is that no matter how much of the whole picture you can see, no matter what understanding you have of life and the “long run”, it doesn’t change the current state of the world. It may be a means of dealing with the problem at hand or coping with the struggle or whatever, but it doesn’t rid of it. Perspective is irrelevent in erasing the past and present. It is only insight to the future, or a look at a situation from the outside. Its weird how interwoven time is with sight.
