As part of an assignment for class, I've been reading an excerpt from Goleman's Social Intelligence. The following quotes are at least part of why I've been trying to watch less television and decrease the amount of time I'm distracting my brain with various forms of technology:
"The one-person shell created by headphones intensifies social insulation. Even when the wearer has a one-on-one, face-to-face encounter, the sealed ears offer a ready excuse to treat the other person as an object, something to navigate around rather than someone to acknowledge, or at the very least, notice... To be sure, from the iPod wearer's perspective, he is relating to someone--the singer, the band... his heart beats as one with theirs. But these virtual others have nothing whatever to do with the people who are just a foot or two away... To the extent that technology absorbs people in virtual reality, it deadens them to those who are acutally nearby. The resulting social autism adds to the ongoing list of unintended human consequences of the coninuing invasion of technology into our daily lives."
Don't take this completely wrong, because here I am typing away into a virtual community---hoping someone is willing to spend a moment here. Connections via the internet are neither inherently bad nor are the film/tv/music industries. It seems to me that one of the bigger problems is our lack on intentionality. How many times have I simply sat down and let a few hours float by when I had planned on doing something more productive. Are there days/weeks that I've watched hours of re-runs only to realize I wished I would have found something more fulfiling to do with that time? After spending an evening with my husband in front of the TV, my brain has shut down. I may have sat next to him, physically nearby, but I cannot cultivate anything meaningful to say that would bridge the gap between us. The land of my mind would rather not be barren, it would rather reach and grow, and connect with the people around me.
Goleman includes a wise insight from T.S. Eliot, written in 1963; the television "permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome."
So, if I don't have much to say for a while again... I hope it's because I'm filling my brain with a greater percentage of books and relationships--and on purpose!
2 comments:
How very meta of you.
Not just iPods but cellphones have the effect Goleman describes in the passage you quote.
Does Goleman see a way out of this dilemma? I mean, the 'Net and mp3 players aren't going away any time soon. I do think that, if oriented properly--that is, if their writers write so as to engage an audience (as opposed to Dear Diary-type emoting) and then respond to them when they comment--blogs have the potential to draw people to one rather than shut them out. But I have also heard anecdotes about obsessive bloggers whose families have staged what are essentially interventions with them: the virtual audience, in extreme cases, begins to assume a greater importance than the people with whom one has actual, physical contact. That, of course, is less than healthy. But I suspect that those same folks already have a touch of the socially-aberrant about them that the 'Net exacerbates rather than causes.
Anyway. It's good to know you're still around and reading thought-provoking things besides. Thanks for sharing.
Between the courses I've taken, articles I've read and a moment of thought on my own part, I think the best solution to this, and many intimacy issues is mindfulness. Realizing that how we spend our time is a choice we make regardless of whether or not we take that into account is, I beleive, the first and most important step. The way we utilize technology can do more harm than good, and it's important to realize this. It's not so harmful to listen to music or write to a virtual audience, but being mindful of how one interacts with the world (as well as each individual in the world) is vital.
That's about I can muster out for now.
I've been reading some of Tom Rath's Vital Friends, which I would recommend and plan to post on... as soon as I've taken the test I'm currently studying for.
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