Over the last few months, we’ve been hanging out with the lovely Louise Williamson on a project exploring feminity, purpose and personality…
Not only is she brilliant, but she’s got a load of great tips for fellow (learner-plate) foodies and manages to find fitting quotes for just about anything you might be working on. Oh, and she writes a mean guest post too – which feels particularly apt given the maelstrom of digital landfill that we’re now filling our lives with.
Have a read of this, and if you agree, turn your computer off and go for a walk. And let us know what happens….
Image props to http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/page/15
I always thought I had it pretty much figured out.
When pondering on how the digital revolution has changed who we are and how we behave, my answer has always been that it hasn’t changed the fundamentals of us as humans, rather it has changed the ways and means we have of satisfying our human desires and motivations. So, for example, we’ve always been supremely sociable beasts, it’s just that the advent of social media has made our ability to connect and share greater than ever before. But at the heart of it, people are still people, technology hasn’t – and won’t change that.
Except maybe that’s not right after all. Maybe that was a bit short-sighted.
I read an essay One Hundred Fears of Solitude a few months ago by an American writer called Hal Crowther which has really stuck with me. It’s a far reaching essay but his central hypothesis is that technology is having a profound effect on the nature of humanity – it’s diminishing our ability to think creatively, intelligently and independently. This is largely driven by two things: the absence of silence in our lives and the increased exposure to the thoughts and opinions of others leading to an ever increasing ‘hive mind’.
“Not long ago, it was generally accepted that humanity’s most creative achievements, from art and poetry to major scientific discoveries, were the precious fruits of solitude. But in a single heartbeat on history’s timeline, this sacred, fecund privacy has become the unpardonable social sin for the generation of which our future creativity depends.”
Whilst I don’t fully subscribe to the bleak future that he describes in his essay (I’m a big fan and user of technology), I cannot disagree with the central premise. Deep down I know he’s right about the silence thing and about the threat to independent thought. In the past year the background noise in my life has become ever louder – think tweets, status updates, emails, RSS feeds etc. When listening to the news I have less and less time to figure out my own perspective before seeing the way the twitter-brigade are turning. My focus and concentrations levels are rubbish (even during the writing of this I’ve checked emails and twitter 8+ times, and looked up various recipes for supper). It was Einstein who (modestly) said “it’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer”. A sentiment rarely echoed in today’s turbo-charged world.
It’s not like going to work offers any respite from this technology-fuelled ADD.
“Modern workplaces are optimised for interruptions, not for work”.
That’s the conclusion of Jason Fried from 37 Signals when considering the impact of technology on our work lives. He talks about how we all go to work during the day and then end up doing our real work after work (yup, I can relate to that).
His solution is to use technology to limit your exposure to technology. Watch his video, it’s great.
“Human beings aren’t designed to run like computers: at high speeds, continuously, for long periods of time. By mimicking them, they’re ending up running us. The problem is that demand is outstripping our capacity… we’re increasingly running on empty”
This is Tony Schwartz talking about the personal energy crisis, his point of view is that we humans are just not built for this. This chimes with Crowther (and many others), who believe that the joy and spirit of humanity doesn’t come from being plugged into the mains.
So, what’s to be done? Unlike many of the naysayers I don’t think its about rejection of technology. Not only is that virtually impossible but I also think it misses the value that technology has bought to the world. But I do think we need to start questioning when it’s adding value to our lives and when it’s eroding it.
Some have taken a drastic step to remind themselves what space and time to think actually feel like, such as Pipeline partner Dan Burgess who has de-camped to a tree house on the Costa Rican coast for 6 months with his family.
Which sounds like a pretty nice way to tackle it but arguably not hugely practical for the rest of us!
In the Gutenberg Elegies, Sven Birkerts talks about the loss of ‘soul’ that occurs through living in a digitally buzzing beehive.
“Soul is our inwardness, our self-reflectiveness, our orientation to the unknown. Soul waxes in private, wanes in public.. Soul is private. Solitary.’
Is it over-simplifying things to suggest that we aim for balance (I know, it’s hackneyed term) through greater awareness? When I check my email upon waking I know it’s a bit weird, when I start absorbing opinions I read on twitter I know it’s lazy thinking. Could we start to impose more rigorous rules around our technology manners: ‘no, you can’t check you text messages whilst we’re having dinner’?
I’m going to give it a try.
Very nice, a lot of stuff I’ve been thinking about recently.
If you haven’t already you should check out Tom Chatfield, especially his talk around learning to live with technology well, he raises some of the points you make here.
I think the approach you espouse is exactly what we should be doing. Simply pulling the plug is not realistic and frustrates me as much as people that think we should all go back to making things and swapping them. But, there are strategies we can employ to make sure technology continues to work for and with us and not against us. I wrote something about that a little while ago shout if you want the link.
Thanks for those interesting sources too, working through them now.
Tom
Comment by tom — April 15, 2011 @ 8:36 am
Great article. Not sure I totally buy into Hal Crowthers point that great ideas “were the precious fruits of solitude”. As Steven Johnson has pointed out – we might like to think that we have eureka moments on our own but actually they tend to be slow hunches built on a great deal of stimulus and often involving the input of others. However, you do need to switch off the stimulus occasionally to process it – something we are increasingly bad at.
Comment by Hugh Knowles — April 15, 2011 @ 10:18 am
I have wifi in my treehouse….
Comment by dan burgess — April 19, 2011 @ 2:18 am