Jan 25th, 2006 by Jesse Moore
I've been overstimulated.
I wake up to the radio, which plays while I shave, brush my teeth, and get dressed for the day. I turn on SportsCenter and check my email (on two accounts). I check my voicemail and my instant messages. I get into my car and turn on my satellite radio, if I'm not returning a call or confirming an appointment. The rest of the day is a symphony of all of these activities, until I return home to write email, watch tv, answer my cell phone, write text messages, and (almost daily) try to think of an original thought to share with the rest of you.
I am very busy, but who isn't? Other people find time to read books (hell, some find time to write books), knit, make jewelry, clean their garage, tie flies, and make music. It's not that I'm in need of a hobby (although that might be the case) - this blog and the rest of the website does take some time, and it's maintenance is something that I do enjoy. But I need to unplug - literally. I need to find time in every day to disassociate myself from the technology that is robbing me of my creative thoughts. My life has become a process of responses to a series of outside demands, and I'm afraid that my inability to tap a creative well is indicative of life that is all to readily passing me by.
This might mean more irregularity in my posts for the short term - for the long term I think it means an increase in the regularity and in the quality of the posts. This is my "My name is Jesse, and I'm a technoholic" moment, and it's sure to be followed with some amount of withdrawal. I hope something comes of it.
I wake up to the radio, which plays while I shave, brush my teeth, and get dressed for the day. I turn on SportsCenter and check my email (on two accounts). I check my voicemail and my instant messages. I get into my car and turn on my satellite radio, if I'm not returning a call or confirming an appointment. The rest of the day is a symphony of all of these activities, until I return home to write email, watch tv, answer my cell phone, write text messages, and (almost daily) try to think of an original thought to share with the rest of you.
I am very busy, but who isn't? Other people find time to read books (hell, some find time to write books), knit, make jewelry, clean their garage, tie flies, and make music. It's not that I'm in need of a hobby (although that might be the case) - this blog and the rest of the website does take some time, and it's maintenance is something that I do enjoy. But I need to unplug - literally. I need to find time in every day to disassociate myself from the technology that is robbing me of my creative thoughts. My life has become a process of responses to a series of outside demands, and I'm afraid that my inability to tap a creative well is indicative of life that is all to readily passing me by.
This might mean more irregularity in my posts for the short term - for the long term I think it means an increase in the regularity and in the quality of the posts. This is my "My name is Jesse, and I'm a technoholic" moment, and it's sure to be followed with some amount of withdrawal. I hope something comes of it.
Yup. Now you understand why your old dad doesn’t own a cell phone, has never handled an iPod, wouldn’t know a text message if it bit him in the butt and is perfectly content to be in the middle of the badlands where the incessant chatter is a pack of coyote pups.
The latin root of “amuse” is the word “muse” which means to ponder, to consider, to meditate upon, and to think deeply. In Latin, the addition of “a” at the front of a word altered the meaning so that it indicated the opposite or antithesis of the original word. Therefore, “amuse”, in the original Latin, meant to think lightly upon, to preoccupy time with the meaningless and trivial, to apply our time to the things that don’t advance us.
I know that the majority of the technology you use is work related and some of it is necessary (maybe not all of it). Nevertheless, there is probably much that can/does occupy your time that is “amusement” based (I’m caught in the same technoholic cycle). Those are the items that we need to cut down on because they often lead to the “inability to tap a creative well”. Let’s face it – our creativity stems from the ability to think, to ponder, to consider deeply. It doesn’t come from “amusement”.
It’s an interesting lesson and one that the majority of us need to realize. After all, our society has become one that panders soley to “amusement”.
Just my musings.
Very well put, Aaron. I’ve taught on the definition of amusement at writer’s seminars and you said it as well as anyone could have.