Stop, automaton.

What are you doing right now?

Reading this post, of course. But are you really paying attention? Or are you skimming over the words, perhaps just sitting down after a long day. Maybe you are reading this while the sun is rising, dreading to go to work, but looking to kill a few minutes before rushing out the door.We rarely consider what we’re doing — what we are experiencing — right now. This has been my state of mind lately, and why I have failed to post anything of substance as of late. My mind has been cluttered with the things that I “need” to do, creating an impassible barrier of tasks and toils that weigh heavily on me. Inevitably, this means I end up doing nothing. Worse still, few of us know how to live productively while taking breaks and relaxing. I find that my two modes of being are chaotically busy, or fumblingly unproductive. The latter is much more frustrating, and has been plaguing me recently. How do we, or I, break free of it? I’m not sure. I loathe reading self-help books, as many of them come off as condescending and excessively anecdotal. Besides, influencing my cognition is only going to influence my behavior so much. All but the most helpless of us know what we are supposed to do, or what we ought to work on. This knowledge almost never translates into action, however. In fact, knowing all the things that we’re supposed to do usually leads to inaction. We have to look up a dieting plan, lift weights, read that research paper, look for a job, create a balance budget, clean the bathroom, cook a healthy meal, walk the dogs, feed the fish, change the oil… . We become paralyzed, or at least I do.

So now we get to the post where we reach the good part, right? The part where I go into detail about what motivation is, understanding yourself, and knowing how to get things done.

No. I’m afraid not.

You see, I am like you. I have no idea what the solution might be, and I have no idea where to start when it comes to motivating myself — let alone telling others how to motivate themselves. Perhaps it is a cop out,  but I’ve started embracing inaction. (And, when I say inaction, I don’t mean utter passivity, and I especially don’t mean laziness). When I sat down at my computer, I had planned to get quite a bit done… but we all know what happens. (That is, not much).

My attempts to be productive weren’t an utter failure, but they were underwhelming, to say the least. As I sat back in my chair, I quietly exhaled a sigh of frustration — of disappointment. “I should be doing so much more”, I thought. Then I noticed it. I had been running on automatic. Unappreciative of where I am, or what I’m currently experiencing. In short, I had been focusing and worrying so much about where I’m going or where I might end up, that I haven’t acknowledged what I have. I’d forgotten that tiny moment that we vaguely call the “present”.

Where am I then? What am I feeling, seeing, hearing? The dull buzz of a stand-up bass rattles through my speakers, courtesy of The Bad Plus. A slightly sour, sweet, and earthy aftertaste lingers in my mouth from the tea I’m drinking. Soft lighting reflects off of a Rothko print, the red changing into orange where the light hits it more harshly. My belly is full, thanks to a nice dinner I’ve made for myself. (I’m just past being perfectly satiated, but not entirely overstuffed). My dog lays contently on his bed, as he falls asleep with a ball propping his mouth open. They say dogs aren’t self-aware, yet he often exhibits greater self-reflection than I do. And, I have a home. My last few months have been rather vagrant and transitory. I’ve stayed in a few houses, but I hadn’t found a home. I suspect that contentedness in small, seemingly insignificant things is what makes a house a home, and I hope to recognize those seemingly insignificant things more often, rather than get caught up in the myth of productivity.

I would keep writing, but I’m not sure I have much left to say about the topic. Besides, I’m out of tea.

The Information Generation — A response

By Tatiana Plakhova of Complexity Graphics

For those of you that haven’t read my original piece, you can do so here.

To begin, I would simply like to exclaim my surprise. I am immensely surprised, and grateful, that my article was Freshly Pressed. I’m glad that the WordPress gods decided my article was worthy. While I’m not getting millions of hits, as I facetiously mentioned in my original post, I am getting more than I could have ever expected. I hope that those views are deserved, and that my readers are able to walk away with some sort of meaningful experience.

I have been doing my best to follow those of you that have followed, commented, or liked my blog post – assuming I would want to follow you anyway, of course. Without getting too personal, I have created this blog for two reasons. First, like many of you, I would like to be heard, and “find my voice”, to use a cliche phrase. I have a dream of being a writer, in some form or another, and of contributing content to magazines or websites. Writing — and having an audience —  is one of the few things that make me feel proud of myself. The second reason is, in a way, more personal. Recently, my life has become more stressful than I could have ever predicted, and has gone rather topsy-turvy. Thus, I created this blog as a sort of outlet. (I think Freud calls that sublimation, or something).

At any rate, the point of this post is to let you guys know that every comment, every like, and every follow is hugely appreciated. Honestly, you folks don’t know the pick-me-up that this has given me. On a related note, please go out and look at the other blogs, (besides the ones on the WordPress homepage). There are people out there who are so deserving of followers and commenters, and unfortunately have few or none. We are all fighting to be heard, and sometimes the brightest, funniest, and artistic posts get lost in the battle.

Speaking of artistic, if you enjoyed the images in my post, please visit Cargo Collective or but does it float, from which the images were linked. The main image that was used for my original post was by Tatiana Plakhova. You can see her work here.

After my publication of the “The Information Generation”, I initially planned on responding to every comment. But, upon being freshly pressed, and receiving so many wonderful comments, it was clear that this wouldn’t be feasible. So many comments deserved a well-thought out, unique, and intelligent response. I was excited, and a bit shocked, to find that the overwhelming majority of comments on my post were inquisitive, exploratory, and non-combative. I wish I could say this is normally the case with online comments. I didn’t once think, “What a troll”, when browsing the comments. That is quite a feat. So, given a limited amount of time, and finite brain capacity, I decided a general response might suffice. At this point, I have read roughly two hundred comments. From here, I’ll be identifying some of the overarching themes of those comments, and responding accordingly.

1. Intelligence isn’t only about information.

There is no sneaking past you guys. Many of you were quick to raise your inquisitive fingers, teasing apart seemingly synonymous concepts.  You caught me. I equated, or, at least insinuated, that information is basically the same thing as intelligence. Some of you quipped that an increase in information, and its ease of access, doesn’t necessarily cause an increase in our level of intelligence.

No, not necessarily.

Will reading a bunch of books, necessarily make you smarter? Not necessarily. Will having access to information on a level that has been, up until now, unprecedented, make future generations more intelligent than ours? Not, necessarily… but it probably will.

No one is entirely sure what intelligence is, or how to define it. It seems to have something to do with absorbing, comprehending, and rearranging information in a way that is useful, different, innovative, or insightful. Each generation is getting increasingly better at taking in and manipulating information, which seems to point to an ever increasing intelligence among our species. Some people complain that having easy access to information is actually bad for us. They believe it stops us from really thinking about things, and hurts our memories, since we don’t have to hold onto anything. This criticism of easy access to information — of the Internet — reminds me of a passage in Plato’s Phaedrus. In the dialogue, Socrates admirably recounts the tale of an Egyptian King, who says that writing things down will help neither our memories nor our wisdom. The fact that Plato wrote his work down in a dialogical manner probably speaks to his skepticism of the written word. You see, in Plato’s day, writing was something fairly spooky and foreign to the ancient Greeks, and many of them didn’t particularly trust it.

Now, ask yourself, was the creation of writing bad for our intelligence? Has the written word simply given us easier access to information, while making us less intelligent, or less knowledgeable? Now, extend your answer to our current age: the digital age, or the information age. Doesn’t easy access to information aid our intelligence? Sure, we sometimes get lost in the sea of information that now surrounds our lives, but we are are learning how to navigate that sea. Further still, the fact that we don’t have to remember so much, (or calculate so much), frees up some cognitive space, so we can do the things we enjoy. After all, intelligence isn’t about remembering things, or rattling off facts or platitudes, or knowing what to say and when to say it. Intelligence is about knowing how to manipulate information to get the results that you want. Intelligence is about understanding the world you live in on a fundamental and inexplicable level – a level that the Internet helps us reach. When I browse online, and the information that flashes about my eyes, or pours through my headphones doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t mean I’m stupid. Quite the contrary. The confusion that we experience when we wrestle with massive amounts of information is a jumping off point. All understanding begins in bewilderment.

2. Technology and the Internet are destroying our social and communication skills.

As I mentioned before, I marvel at older people’s ability to hold conversations. People my age are always distracting ourselves with smartphones, or blocking out the world with earbuds. We might seem twittery and awkward during some social interactions, but this hardly means we are socially inept, or that we have bad communication skills. It just means that younger people socialize in a different way.

Allow me to reverse the image for people who are older. If I’m talking to someone online who is over the age of 50, I have to prepare myself. I think, “This is going to be a chore”. They respond only when asked direct questions. They won’t just talk. They don’t use emoticons, (meaning I have no idea how they feel). If I stop talking for a few minutes, they think I’ve disappeared. “Are you still there? OK, well I’ll talk to you later”? What!? What are you talking about? Of course I am still here. Don’t you see the status field that says “online”? Explaining the notion of “online friends” to older generations is even more of a chore. “You met some person online? Be careful they aren’t a pervert”. Why would they be a pervert? Not everyone on the internet is a pervert.

Many of you were concerned that, because your kids are constantly on their phones or computers, they aren’t developing healthy social skills. I understand your concerns. I was — and am — one of those kids, and my parents were like you. I know it is difficult to understand, but let me say, entirely nonfacetiously, that the internet saved my life. If it wasn’t for talking to people online, and developing online friends, I wouldn’t have any friends. I learned how to talk to people in real life via talking to people online. My first date and real relationship resulted from chatting with someone online, because neither of us had the guts to talk to each other in person. Fifty years ago, kids like me were the loners or the book worms. If it wasn’t for the Internet, I would have had no outlet to socialize at all. The socially awkward kids of my generation understood ourselves through exploring the Internet. I know that statement sounds strange, but it is true. Parents shouldn’t confuse a changing social environment — one that now occurs largely on the Internet — for a lack of social skills or social development.

3. The accuracy of Information

This is partially related to (1), but I thought it deserved it’s own post, because it is such a pervasive theme. So many people — especially older people — are concerned with the accuracy of information on the Internet. Again, this is an understandable concern. When surfing the net, it is incredibly difficult to separate the misinformation, propaganda, and outright error, from fact. The Internet is a landfill of opinions – many of them formulated on shakey ground and feeble nonsense. But, how is this any different from the everyday world? Aren’t we regularly surrounded by gossip, rumor, hearsay, and lies? At least when browsing the Internet, you can investigate the validity of what you are reading. In everyday conversation, people become rather annoyed by questions like “Where did you hear that from? What’s your proof?” or, “Why do you believe that?”. Unlike people, the Internet doesn’t mind being pestered about the accuracy of it’s claims. On a related note, I’m happy I didn’t come across any comments that said “Wikipedia is inaccurate, because anyone can edit it”, as if written encyclopedias or other websites are absolutely infallible. At least Wikipedia, while sometimes inaccurate, can be retroactively corrected if something is wrong, or some new discovery is made. (It all reminds me of the “criticism” that Bible thumpers use against science, saying it is inaccurate because it is “always changing”. No, its accurate precisely because it is changing).

4. Analogue will never die.  

If I can be slippery, and post-modern for a moment, I would say that this claim is both correct and incorrect. Many people noted that the world we live in is analogue. Aside from some weird matrix-esque scenario, our world will always be analogue. This is true. We will, technically speaking, always have to transmute the analogue into the digital. I didn’t claim that analogue won’t exist. I said it will be “dead”. It will be “dead”, in the same way that ancient scrolls or hieroglyphics are “dead”. Still, there is an exception to the analogue-to-digital trend that cannot be ignored. That exception is music, and instruments. In a comment on my original post, pragwater wrote the following:

I play the congas, and there is nothing quite like hitting a drum. Actually, instead of the verb to hit, I prefer the spanish verb “tocar”, which also means to touch, which is more descriptive of what a conga player does. Drumming is truly a primeval force, which I believe is in every one of us. I see this whenever a child runs over to my drums and starts beating on them… there is no way that any electronic drum could provide the satisfaction that a drummer feels when they are playing. However, it very well may be that the listener would be just as happy listing to the digital sound as the real thing, provided that the digital version can produce the rich sounds of a real drum.

Pragwater is undeniably correct. Unfortunately, I play electronic drums because I have immediate neighbors, and they just aren’t the same as acoustic drums. Even state of the art electronic kits, which can sound absolutely stunning, don’t offer the same sensation. Some things haven’t been successfully digitized, and they may never be. Only time will tell.

5. Generalization and Stereotypes

Turns out, a lot of you – perhaps most of you – are around that “older” age, that I referred to in my original post. To be honest, I felt strange coming up with a name and a number to refer to the generation that wasn’t mine. Should it be over 40? Should it be my grandparents? Should I say generation X? No age could be entirely correct, obviously. There are eighty year olds that are technology aficionados, and twenty something’s that are computer illiterate. The purpose of my post was to understand – but also exaggerate – generational differences. In order to do this effectively, and without making a million exceptions, I had to generalize and use stereotypes. Today, we think of those as bad things, but generalizations have their uses.

The Information Generation

RadioSilence, by Tatiana Plakhova

Our world is all but digitized. Analogue is becoming a thing of the past, and will likely die with my parents generation, or my own. It will be seen as something collectible, cool, retro, and unique, but nevertheless, dead. Yes, people still flip through books, buy records, and learn instruments, but for how much longer? The pushing of tactile buttons, pulling of levers, and turning of knobs, is about to disappear. Soon the distinction between being online and offline will fade. There will be no offline, and thus, no online. Everything and everyone will be forever connected. If we want to disconnect, we’ll have to painstakingly go out out of our way to do so.

If you are like me, then you feel amiss when you can’t get online. Usually it happens when visiting parents, grandparents, or rural friends. On one occasion – before I bothered to turn on my laptop – I asked someone what their Wifi password was. They stared at me blankly for a few seconds, before uttering, “Wifi?” The horror. The horror.

But, honestly, there is a certain anxiety that comes over people in my generation when we can’t connect. Technology critics and primitivists usually claim that this anxiety is innately bad, and stems from my generation’s need for instant gratification. But what’s so bad about instant gratification? Should I have to work to find the information I want, or need, when it is conveniently at my fingertips? Shouldn’t information be easy to access?

Then again, maybe I am too “connected”. Half of my daydreaming is spent in my head, the other half online. To an outsider – typically someone over forty – it must look strange. Blue links highlighted. Flashing windows. Twenty tabs open. Music playing. Headphones on. Lukewarm coffee on desk. Occasionally, I feel less like a person, and more like an amoeba that feeds on tweets, notifications, and followers.

Enter my parent’s generation. The first thing to notice is their sociality. Older people are always talking, or always listening. Rarely are they absorbed in some task on a computer, hunched over with a stiff neck and squinting eyes. (That is, unless they are trying to find the vexatious, “forward to all” button). Older generations can get lost in a conversation; yet, their conversations lack something. They tend to get stuck on bits of information that, for the life of them, they cannot remember.

Who was that actresses name? What was that restaurant in San Francisco called? How can we get to the freeway from here? Questions always linger when talking to older people. This isn’t because they have bad memories – though they certainly can – but, because they aren’t whipping out their phones, or flinging open their laptops. There is an odd elegance to this. I have to remind myself that for my parents, the world isn’t about information, or, “instant gratification”. My mother spends her time watching classic films, visiting family, and reading books. My father rides his mountain bike, shoots guns, and fixes things. I can’t tell if he particularly enjoys this last activity, as much of the time it is littered with “fuck”, and “god damn it”. (Edit: he claims he only cusses when he can’t fix things).

My parent’s generation have a laudable simplicity about them. They are sometimes frustrating, asking us to hook up their internet for fix their computers, but those things are essentially foreign to them. Our parents don’t really belong in the digital world, they just visit it. They are record players, and we are iPods. Besides, I can’t pretend I’m entirely used to our digital world either. I still remember the days of connecting to the internet through screeching analogue dial tones, so that I could work on my geocities website into the tiny hours of the morning, or until someone called and I was disconnected. Sometimes I have to remind myself that my generation was the last to grow up before the Internet became truly monolithic. From now on, children will grow up in the shadow of that monolith. While it may be frightening, I think younger generations will be fine. My niece and nephew’s computer skills already rival their parents, and none are over the age of six.

So, how is my generation – the information generation – handling things? How can we begin to answer this question? Information is violently changing our lives. The Arab world has ignited with social protests, partially catalyzed by social media. WikiLeaks has released over 400,000 confidential government documents. The Occupy movement is still going strong, with rallies being organized online. The first digital currency showed signs of being practical. For the first time, Artificial Intelligence is being used widely, (even if it is rather silly). And, somewhere, a twenty-two year old kid writes a blog post about all of it, which could be seen by millions. (I said could.)

My generation is starving for useful, thoughtful, intelligent, and inspiring information. If we want to learn how to do something — anything — we can google it, and be on our way; there’s even a how-to-do-everything podcast. If that weren’t enough, Wikipedia has an entry on just about everything, with all links eventually leading back to philosophy. We can learn about the fundamental stuff of the universe – or whatever philosophers ramble about — with a few mouse clicks. For those of us that don’t like reading, there are infographics and videos on every topic out there. When we aren’t absorbing information, we’re expressing ourselves by the millions, through sites like DeviantArt, Flickr, Tumblr, Etsy, WordPress, and more. Perhaps we are too entitled, too lazy, or too impatient, but, we aren’t stupid. I don’t accept that. We have access to more information than any other generation, and we are using it. We are becoming smarter with the information we are using, even if much of it drips through the cracks of obnoxious YouTube videos and incomprehensible memes. Perhaps I’m being sophomoric, but I think the internet is fundamentally good, because knowledge is fundamentally good. Maybe that crazy greek bastard was onto something when he said, “The only good is knowledge, the only evil is ignorance”. And, if you don’t know who I’m talking about, just google it.