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Reflections on the puddle of life

iTouch is making me dim

Rating: 5 votes, 1.00 average.
8 Comments
by
TheFifthElement
, 03-16-2010 at 11:22 AM (1538 Views)
A few months ago I bought an iTouch. My iPod was getting a bit old (it was a mini) and not very reliable when the weather got cold. So I got an iTouch. I loved it. It’s sleek and pretty and I can use it to check my e-mail or browse the web, as well as listening to music or playing games and it’s been the springboard for me starting to learn Japanese, so in many respects it has been good.

But the iTouch is making me dim.

It’s turning me into a ‘dipper’. I dip in and out of things. I’ve eschewed the delights of Facebook and Bebo and Twitter and all those short-sharp-shock messaging sites and when I get home I put my mobile phone in a cupboard and if anyone wants to chat we can have a good long chat on my landline instead of a series of beeping, beeping text messages, but the iTouch has got me. Suddenly I have macro-concentration. Of an evening instead of logging on to my computer, which encourages me to do some writing, or actually doing something productive like playing with my kids or sewing or reading or learning something or going out on my bike or in the garden or playing sports I sit on my sofa and reach out my left arm and pick up the iTouch and gibber. I check my e-mail 6 times an hour but never reply, I check out websites, I check out Lit-net but I don’t logon because trying to type out any kind of meaningful message with that weeny fingertouch keyboard is a kind of slow torture I’m not willing to put myself through (especially when it ‘intelligently’ replaces words on your behalf. That is incredibly annoying). I’ll put it down, then moments later I’ll pick it back up again and before you know it an hour has gone, I’m tired from all the squinting, my fingers ache from all that zooming in and out, I’m drooly and vacant-eyed and I’ve done absolutely nothing.

And it troubles me.

Because I have been, on the whole, pretty proud of my ability to concentrate and I really like to dig deep into the nitty-gritty of things and see how they work. I'm not (wasn't) a surface scratcher. I can read for long periods of time. In work I do a lot of research and detailed work and this troubles me not. And I have wrestled against the progression we’re making into this soundbite culture, where peoples’ attention can only be held by tweets and text messages and Sun headlines and those quick, unintelligible one-liners on Facebook. And, little by little, I find I am falling into the same trap.

And I say: NO MORE!

So this week I’m going to do a little experiment. When I get home tonight I’m going to put my iTouch upstairs and instead of exercising my Apple-fix arm I’m going to do something else. Anything else. And if I want to access the internet I’ll switch on my laptop and actually interact instead of being a slack-mouthed, brain-starved, voyeur. I promise.

So to anyone who has written to me that I haven’t yet replied to, I apologise. I’ve been sick, and whilst the road to recovery may be long I will get better.
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Comments

  1. The Comedian's Avatar
    This is just the sort of thing (and thinking) that I, too, hope to avoid. Just the other day, I came into work and kept my computer off and graded papers and took notes and a several other tasks all while being unmolested by my constant need to "check email", "check facebook". . . .

    Good luck to you Fifth; It feels good when you're not scatter brai. . .hey is that a message? Got to go. C U l8r
  2. AuntShecky's Avatar
    Hey some college professors are finally banning laptops --and I assume-- web-enabled phones from their classrooms. I say it's about time. Does that make me a Luddite?
  3. Lote-Tree's Avatar
    You need an IPAD!!!

    You are crying out for an IPAD! :-)
  4. Nightshade's Avatar
    Hmmm Ive been thinking about my loss of concetration nowadays i cant watch an entire movie, or even a 30 minute tv programme in a single sitting unless I am doing something else. I am blaming the multiple windows on the internet explrer, I usually never have less than 6 windows or tabs, and 3 other applications running whihc I switch between as an unltimate multitasker. Now I can't read a real book, Ive got used to reading ebooks on my computer where I fick in and out read a page do some work chechk email check facebook back to book etec. Infact one of the reasons it took me so long to get back to the litent after they conncectd my internet ( 2 whole months! ) was it just takes so long!
    did I mention I can't watch tv without something catching my atention and stopping to go look something up on the internet? When I had net on y phone it was simple and I got addicted to having all that knowledge at my fingertips, being able to find anything out in a few minutes.
  5. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    Thanks Comedian. I didn't catch the last bit, it seems you were talking a different language
    Aunty I think less of a Luddite and more of a 'head screwed on right'!
    Lote I most definitely do not need an iPad. I would be a mental basketcase. If I were going to get a tablet PC I'd go for the Microsoft Courier, primarily because as a PC it would do more than mindlessly entertain me, but also because it is in a booklet form and would be less likely to be damaged. I could carry a Courier in my rucksack but an iPad would look a little sorry after 3.5 miles on my bike!
    Nightie Yikes! I can, at least, still watch a movie. Maybe you need to cold turkey like me. It's tough though. I know exactly what you mean. I find myself doing it at work sometimes; I'll be in the middle of something then suddenly I'll have a thought and I have to check that out and then I'll have a quick look on Lit-net then I'll go back to what I'm doing. And somehow this seems to help me concentrate...by not concentrating! And with the iTouch I'd do exactly what you said, I'd be watching TV and the hand would reach out and the next minute I'd be surfing the web. Bizarre, and a bit scary!

    So far I've managed not to pick the iTouch up tonight, it's hidden away in my bedroom, and instead I've done some cross-stitch, I've read an essay by Bertrand Russell called An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish which was incredibly funny (did you know that Aristotle believed that the pig is the only animal which can suffer from measles?!), chatted with the kids, caught up (properly) with some friends and now I'm going to post a thread and then practice some Japanese. What a productive night!
  6. Virgil's Avatar
    I'm with Nightie. I definitely have had a loss of concentration since the computer was mass produced. I don't particpate on any of those chat forums. I've never even heard of Bebo. But the internet has replaced television for me. I hardly watch any.
  7. qimissung's Avatar
    omg, you could be describing ME with my new smart phone!

    My son is the one on the computer sometimes, and I'm laying there "watching" T.V., but in reality I'm doing exactly what you're doing! And like you, Fifth, I've thought, this has got to stop.

    It's really great to have when you're in waiting rooms, though!
  8. Nightshade's Avatar
    Oh by checking on the internet i mean they quote something and Im like I want to know where that came from, or like hotel rawnda whihc I watched a few months ago I wasgoing mad because I had no internet and couldnt check if it was a true story and the history of the whole incedent before the film finished.
    Its instant gratification at its worst!
    Sometimes I even take my crochet with me when I vist people because my keeping my hands busy I find I can concentrate on what they are saying otherwise I start to drift....