100 years ago, society talked in books, each taking several hours to read.
80 years ago, it became radio, each show up to an hour.
60 years ago, television, a show is half an hour.
10 years ago, blogs, reading a post is 5-10 minutes.
Now, Twitter, each post takes 30 seconds to read.
I guess we simply have become fantastically efficient at expressing deep thoughts more and more succinctly. For surely we can't have on our conscience that we converse more and more shallowly?
Deep thoughts cannot be expressed in proverbs. They take carefully crafted words, lots of words, and time to think out what those words mean and analyze the the ramifications. 180 characters of anything are just quick opinions or prejudiced factoids, nothing more. 21-minute TV shows are not deep thoughts. Even 2-hour movies can't express the richness that comes with a well-written book. Watch "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (the Swedish version is much better than the US version), then read the book and see how much you missed.
ReplyDeleteDeep thoughts can also be probed with trusted friends. It takes hours, not seconds to examine true paradigm change possibilities.
"Gun control" -- a red hot topic in the US -- seems to be devolving into banning high capacity magazines. This is terribly shallow thinking, but succinct to express. A 30-round magazine takes maybe 60 seconds to empty, if the shooter takes his time but aims quickly. It take about 5 seconds to eject a magazine and insert a new one. So a shooter with three 10-round magazines would take 70 seconds to get off 30 rounds. How does banning hi-cap magazines effect any major change? But it makes a good sound bite!
My friend and I discussed "gun control" for over 3 hours. I proposed "access control", whereby assault rifles would be required to be stored outside homes in a military armory, checked out when needed for a shooting activity, then returned to the armory. Anyone caught with an unregistered assault rifle would face a mandatory 5-year sentence in a military prison as a terrorist. Everyone would be criminally liable for anything that happened with their firearms. That would at least get assault rifles off the streets. There was a lot to discuss, pro and con, and whether it could possibly get passed into US law, given the paranoia in many citizens over government tyranny. Sure beat watching American Idol.
I don't use twitter. I do use Facebook, but I also read blogs and books and will continue to do so. I don't think adding a faster medium need detract from the existing ones.
ReplyDeleteSure beat watching American Idol.
ReplyDeleteTough call. Two pretentious twats talking out of their asses, or talentless twats pretending to sing...
How can someone summarize thousands of books and research in a "TWEET"?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to thank "Anonymous" for so ably demonstrating that a tweet is nothing more than an uninformed, prejudiced opinion. Its posts add nothing to any discussion.
ReplyDeleteThey also demonstrate what a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder does: comment on everything, because it thinks its opinion is important. (Also gotta have the last word, because it thinks that the world revolves around it.)
Is it afraid to reveal anything about itself, even so much as to adopt a false personna? It must be terribly lonely to live like that. Deep thoughts? How can there be any, untempered by human interactions?
Eventually, people learn that its posts are nothing but a pitiful cry for attention. Since the posts are invariably negative, the rest of us develop a callus toward them, like our bodies do to a chafing place on a shoe, and then ignore it. Might be a waste of a good brain, but maybe not. Maybe that's the best it can do.
Last word.
ReplyDeleteWerd!
ReplyDelete