Our Virtual Lives

Like many people I can become overwhelmed at times with the digital age that we live in. I feel like we are all somehow being hurled into a space that is so crowded no one can even think, at least not for themselves. I worry that face to face communication and solitude are becoming a lost art. We can’t stand in line, wait at a stoplight, or even take a dump for crying out loud, without getting on our devices.

We have built up a culture of distraction in order to keep us from whatever might happen should we not multitask for once. I say "we" because I am a part of it and it’s all very close to home for me. The instagraming, yahoo, blogging me. For example, I despise texting while driving, but every time I hear the little tone on my iphone alerting me that I have a new text or comment the more I automatically feel drawn to pick it up.

Several months ago I read a book called Hamlet’s Blackberry which is what inspired me to do this series.

In this book, by William Powers, he looks at the state of a generation entangled in hyperconnectivity and then compares it to that of seven different great philosophers from the past. As each chapter unfolds we find out our situation is not all that unique.

For example on page 93 in the chapter about Plato & Socrates we learn

"Even writing was once considered a new technology and just like many other new things it wasn’t as obvious of a step forward as we see it today. Socrates writes of the king’s view of this tool by saying that

'writing is a dangerous invention, because it doesn’t allow ideas to flow freely and change in real time, the way they do in the mind during oral exchange. Whereas conversation is all about back-and-forth, written language is a one way street: Once a thought is written down, it’s frozen and you can’t challenge it or change it’s position. It’s a record of ideas that already exist, rather than a way of creating new ones.'

Thinkers have been analyzing and debating this passage for ages, because Socrates got it so wrong. His reaction to writing is typical of the confusion and anxiety new technologies often cause."

Along with this excerpt from the book I scribbled loads of other quotes on scraps of paper that are now scattered about through drawers and old notebooks. This was my way of trying to cram every thought provoking point from the book into my head, primarily so that I could relay it to you. I highly recommend checking out Hamlet's Blackberry and I hope you will join me by sharing your own opinions and stories this week as I talk about the high tech, over stimulated, plugged in generation that we are all a part it and whether or not the perceived problem is in fact a problem.