If you have 5 minutes to spare today, perhaps read this New York Times article written by Pico Iyer.
It's about how we are all spending way too much time in front of screens, and how it is likely making us all miserable. And how we must all re-learn how to just sit quietly on our own without the need of constant internet distraction.
It's an interesting read, and it really made me think.
Here are a few excerpts from the article....
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The average American spends at least eight and a half hours a day in front of a screen.
In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them — often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight.
The urgency of slowing down — to find the time and space to think — is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context. “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, “and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.” He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
The central paradox of the machines that have made our lives so much brighter, quicker, longer and healthier is that they cannot teach us how to make the best use of them; the information revolution came without an instruction manual. All the data in the world cannot teach us how to sift through data; images don’t show us how to process images. The only way to do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen.
Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music.
The central paradox of the machines that have made our lives so much brighter, quicker, longer and healthier is that they cannot teach us how to make the best use of them; the information revolution came without an instruction manual. All the data in the world cannot teach us how to sift through data; images don’t show us how to process images. The only way to do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen.
Nothing makes me feel better — calmer, clearer and happier — than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music.
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Here's the link to the original article by Pico Iyer:
Let me know what you think if you read it.
7 comments:
Wanted to read it but it says I have to have an account. Well darn
thanks for the excerpts. can't read it either... it would have been my five minutes break from working, by the way. in front of a computer ;)
That is so interesting and Im going to read the article right away. Thanks, sweetie. Have a beautiful Tuesday! xo
that's too bad you can't read it, I didn't realize you needed a new york times account.
Well it would still be worth it in my opinion.
Perhaps try this link:
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Joy-of-Quiet--Pico-Iy-in-Best_Web_OpEds-111229-758.html
I just turned off the TV. Ahhh. Thanks.
Wow, does this ever resonate! Thanks for reminding me to unwind and disconnect:)
xoxo
This seems very interesting! I'm saving it to my weekend reading. Now I just don't have time to "waste" in front of the screen :)
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