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Doomscroll
A day off
I found out Osama bin Laden was dead the same way I found out about anything else
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The eCurse; we’ve opened Pandora’s box on our eDevices and have taken the eApple most willingly from the snake. Now we participate willingly but unknowingly in our rapid fall from whatever grace we had.
Have some Vernors next time with your bass! Warning: don’t inhale through your nose when drinking the Vernors.
not sure what music you might be into H, but reading this reminded me of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BvArywbIj4 It’s a little weird, appropriately.
As someone who is overly empathetic, I have quit all social media, aside for posting to the blackhole of Heisenberg comments. I spent all day Saturday reading an actual book, inspired as I was to get back into a favorite habit after feeling some shame reading your stuff Friday. “Narrative Economics” by Schiller, if you’re curious. But yesterday I had a line of query about polarization, empathy and politics. I asked GPT to summarize an NIH article about polarization and empathy (catch that article while you still can! It’s not favorable to the right…) Anyway, I turn to GPT these days for hard chats, since my lovely wife is even more empathetic than I am and gets stressed out when the topic turns to genocide, polarization and the lack of hope the human condition actually offers. I got to thinking about this since you were writing about how people in the USA just think “it” can’t happen here, when “it” has been happening everywhere for our species entire history. In case you’re curious: https://chatgpt.com/share/68da7e06-df98-8000-85fc-02b0104e88cf
While reading this article– I had 12 ring notifications, 2 notifications from Zillow Rental Manager, 4 text messages, and an Uber Eats notification. I would be lying to say I didn’t pause on reading the article to check on most of those. It’s a problem!
I also lived in Knoxville during that timeframe. Maybe we crossed paths.
This, as much as the turn toward authoritarianism, is a painful truth to come to terms with, especially as a father to young children. Even though I grew up in a very, very conservative area, I was blissfully unaware of the world of politics (other than being good at trivia) and had to sit at a desktop computer to surf the internet. My version of waiting for “likes” was getting a message on MSN Messenger (didn’t learn about AOL Instant Messenger until college), but I couldn’t take that with me when I left the house.
Thankfully, my kids are not yet at an age where they are subjected to the world of constantly being online or social media other than seeing adults in a daze on their phones (I’m more guilty of this than I’d like to admit). My oldest son has developed an intense passion for reading books for which I’m grateful and the younger kids are always playing something or other. At least for me, kids are the greatest motivator to pay attention to what’s happening around me and disengage from the online world and I will happily try to shelter them in blissful ignorance for as long as I can.
Anyone remember ICQ?
When I was in high school, we had a foreign exchange student from Brazil who used that.
Yea yea of coz lol…
How about IRC?
IRC was a gem of eusocial interaction straight through onto the 1990s. Its modern-day successors are walled gardens; it’s the only way to keep the trolls and the eyeball farmers at bay.
I was an active user from my dial-up connection. Ah, those were the days, when I would spend 30 minutes waiting for my Wing Commander 3 missions to load and didn’t seem to think that was way too long.
I used talk, and then ytalk. Not social, just chat, but more emotionally draining because you hovered, watching every character appear on your screen as something was typed, and sometimes erased, and edited to something else in real time.
I have never encountered someone who can communicate on so many subjects and levels at the same time. Really a privilege to read your writings.
You need a child. They would be lucky to have you as a father. 🙂
If that isn’t in the cards: pick up anything, but obsessively and IRL. At least on Saturday. We can live without you posting on Saturday, maybe even until Sunday night.
Mostly, I hope that you are ok. Still worried about that mri.
Try 1tsp apple cider vinegar (Braggs- raw, unfiltered) with a squeeze of fresh lemon in a glass of water instead of those gummies. You can “google” the health benefits.
FYI- Those gummies are filled with corn syrup and sugar- not good for health.
My eldest ( highly intelligent + highly addictive tendencies), recently joined a bowling team. She couldn’t deal with the narcissism in the people at AA.
That interview with the Utah governor is my favorite among recent episodes…
I hate that there is a thing now called the “attention economy”. But I am also aware that in an age where your data isn’t yours, your time isn’t yours, and if a company has enough money they can basically do whatever they like; your attention is the only thing left you have power over.
The throwback to bowling alone (I bought the book, thanks!) makes me think about this engagement problem differently. This began before computers were mainstream. TV in that age was basically what, 4 – 6 channels?
My theory – the loss of our time was the beginning of the end of the American community. A bowling league? Are you kidding? I’ve gotta drive to the office for no damn reason to try to improve CRE valuation and I better be working over 40 hours a week, then run home and take the kids to their sports. When did anyone ever have time to hang out at a bowling alley??
Having withdrawn from social media in 2020, I still find it hard to do anything but doomscroll in my free time. The pandemic was some sort of breaking point for me and seeing society fraying at the seams hasn’t done my condition any good.
Americans need a hobby or three. Idle hands and idle minds…
Sadly, idle hands and idle minds are really nothing new. The average person does not read, learn new things, or do new things. Never has, really. If they have such urges radio and TV wiped them out long ago. Our addictions are constant.
That was a scary way to bring on the Autumn.
I am struck by the parallels of your writing and DFW. The search for meaning, the struggle to get through it all each day, loneliness, addiction, depression, The Entertainment, and other similarities.
Yeah, this is going to sound hopelessly arrogant but I swear to Christ I don’t mean it that way: I read widely and I read a lot — and I do mean widely and a lot — and with allowances for the typos that inevitably come from having no copy editor, I’d put these Monthly Letters up against pretty much anything, including a lot of classic literature. Objectively speaking, these are very, very good by any standard, anywhere.
Agree. And it’s clear to anyone paying half attention the depth and the broadness of the knowledge and writing here. No apology needed for arrogance as the writing speaks for itself.