Do modern life conveniences stop us from thinking?

[Hira]

I don't know if you guys may have noticed, but I was recently away from the litnet, due to a housework (and my inability to do it properly ) incident. In this time, I was also apart from all television and radio. The only things I had were books and paper.

During this while, for some reason and other. I started THINKING. a lot. the thoughts were like a pounding rush, even through a haze of Advil, nyquil and aleeve. I tried to write them down but I couldn't pin down pen to paper

the more time I spent away from modern life conveniences, the more I thought. And I wondered.....

is all this related? are our inventions somehow manufactured to stop us from thinking? Do tv and the internet brainwash us somehow?

(Yes, it all reeks of a government conspiracy )

All kidding aside,

what do you think?

Do modern life conveniences (in spite of their usefulness) stop us from thinking?

I agree so completely. I've always felt that the internet and the TV especially befuddled and muddled my brain. I feel I can think a lot more clearly on days when I don't watch any TV (which aren't many). Otherwise its just a jumbled mess. Mind rambles like hell and I can't process thoughts properly, take them through their conclusions. Concentration span falling to a minimum sometimes. I haven't read Fahrenheit 451, but I used to (and still do. Its an Orwell effect I think) think quite cynically that all of this was designed to have us in control somehow. You know when there are so many distractions on TV and the internet that you wouldn't and couldn't think about someone dying in some other country, miles and miles away from you. From wars and poverty. Maybe it wasn't designed for that purpose but its serving those in power well, I think.

[Bakiryu]

As deeply as I can when I'm reading a book.

strange.

I find out that i can't really think that much at all when i'm reading, unless I close the book. then it's when all the thoughts come in. different thought patterns I suppose.

************************************************** *

I find it amusing that perhaps this line of thought was influenced mainly by Fahrenheit 451.

[Shea]

Saw this article in the paper yesterday and had to share.

Boy, 12, beat toddler to death with bat, police say
Miami Herald
Upset that the toddler left in his care wouldn’t stop crying, a 12-year*old Lauderhill boy picked up a base*ball bat and beat the little girl to death, police said.
“He became enraged ... because she made noise while he was trying to watch television,” said Lauderhill po*lice Lt. Mike Cochran.
The boy was believed to be a cousin of the victim, 17-month-old Shaloh Jo*seph, who died from multiple blows to the head.
He was arraigned on Sunday on a first-degree murder charge in Bro*ward County juvenile court, where a judge ordered the youngster held in juvenile detention pending another hearing later this month.
Police said the boy had been left alone with his 10-year-old brother and little Shaloh at her home Friday where the beating took place.
The boy’s father and mother at*tended Sunday’s hearing, and asked for his release.
“He is not a violent kid,” said the boy’s mother, Guerla Joseph. “He loves kids.”

Sounds like the TV became the conveneint babysitter causing neither the parents nor the the kid to think.

[Bakiryu]

Saw this article in the paper yesterday and had to share.



Sounds like the TV became the conveneint babysitter causing neither the parents nor the the kid to think.

It sounds definitely horrid! I cannot believe that after that his mother would say he loves children, seriously some people......!

[Mark Anthony]

I say, 'of course'. We spend too little time doing nothing. There's too much going on! Technology eh? Bin the T.V. and bring back the Great Thinkers!

[Pensive]

Boy, 12, beat toddler to death with bat, police say
Miami Herald
Upset that the toddler left in his care wouldn’t stop crying, a 12-year*old Lauderhill boy picked up a base*ball bat and beat the little girl to death, police said.
“He became enraged ... because she made noise while he was trying to watch television,” said Lauderhill po*lice Lt. Mike Cochran.
The boy was believed to be a cousin of the victim, 17-month-old Shaloh Jo*seph, who died from multiple blows to the head.
He was arraigned on Sunday on a first-degree murder charge in Bro*ward County juvenile court, where a judge ordered the youngster held in juvenile detention pending another hearing later this month.
Police said the boy had been left alone with his 10-year-old brother and little Shaloh at her home Friday where the beating took place.
The boy’s father and mother at*tended Sunday’s hearing, and asked for his release.
“He is not a violent kid,” said the boy’s mother, Guerla Joseph. “He loves kids.”

Jeez, that is indeed horrifying!

I say, 'of course'. We spend too little time doing nothing. There's too much going on! Technology eh? Bin the T.V. and bring back the Great Thinkers!

Well, I would say television can make one think (even though I don't usually like watching television but I would admit that there can be quite many interesting programs and serials there making one think) as do these forums at times (forum-ing is also an evidence of the advancements in technology!) I wouldn't say that by using technology, we are doing nothing if there is a thing such as something.

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Do modern life conveniences (in spite of their usefulness) stop us from thinking?

I don't think it is so much a matter of stopping us from thinking as one of stealing our attention. Every time you get interrupted you lose track of what you were doing, and when the interruption is over it does take longer than most people realize to get back on track again. Today we get interrupted by machines more often than by people.

In all fairness some appliances saves time too, of course.

I say, 'of course'. We spend too little time doing nothing.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Have you noticed that having blanks in your schedule seems to be something one should be slightly ashamed of today? Sometimes, when my colleagues ask me what I am planning to do do during the weekend, I am able to answer "-Nothing...". When that happens, they usually look at me as if wondering which loonie-bin I escaped from, but for me the mere thought is a glimpse of heaven.

/Claes

[Jane Jane]

I read something from one of our Popes that, instead of doing more and more we should trim down and do less and less. There was something to be said about the people long ago who got up with the rooster, worked hard, fellowshipped about the table at the end of a hard day, read or played music and went to bed early. You could think deeply then and your brain actually had time to sift and sort out things. Now with electricity and teli and munchies a person can go on until the wee hours and then it is time to shower, eat and go to work. Those modern conveniences,and I do love them do indeed steal our time away. Moderation in all things might help I suppose.

[AtomicCafe1]

I use the internet for communication because I'm complete loser and outcast in the "real world" and I go to Wikipedia almost everyday.

You and I are alike

Plus, I love Devo.

[Lily Adams]

You and I are alike

Plus, I love Devo.

You know what? Your username is so awesome I looked up your profile and your posts, and this is the first thing I saw.

Oh, good, more beautiful mutants. *spud salute*

[Taliesin]

Have you noticed that having blanks in your schedule seems to be something one should be slightly ashamed of today? Sometimes, when my colleagues ask me what I am planning to do do during the weekend, I am able to answer "-Nothing...". When that happens, they usually look at me as if wondering which loonie-bin I escaped from, but for me the mere thought is a glimpse of heaven.

/Claes

I think that this somehow is also connected with the fact that one is supposed to be "active" and "outgoing" - that it is what is regarded as positive nowadays, to do, to work, to have fun, actively, to do, who does something, has time for it, to do, to do.
I personally blame protestant working ethics for that.

[Bakiryu]

I know. I miss the old times of lounging around in overalls, sitting on the grass, just eating corn you stole from the neighbor's field.

[aabbcc]

I don't think modern life conveniences per se are the problem - they contributed quite a lot not only to the comfort of our everyday life, but also to the knowledge, as it became more accessible than ever, if you have got the internet; likewise, whilst there are mindless reality shows on tv, there are also good documentary films, news, quality political shows, etc. As a matter of fact, I believe that technology, if "consumed" with certain dose and limits, can do wonders for us.

What is the problem in the whole story - at least how I view it - is that more and more people overdose themselves with technology and get lost in it, since they not only consume it for educational purposes or moderately for fun, but it becomes crucial part of their free time, thus becoming a purpose for itself. And, of course, since there is no healthy dose and since technology becomes consumed as an escape from "real life", soon there appear side effects you mention - from mind going blank for hours when watching mindless shows, to alienation from people, etc.
There is also a risk of a plethora of psychosomatic consequences which are usually a direct consequence of too much tv - such as lack of concentration, general anxiety and nervousness, and so on. My mother is psychologist and once she was writing some paper on the effects of horror films on that which is popularly referred to as ADHD/ADD. I do not remember clearly all the points she made, since I only skimmed it, but one of them caught my mind - when you watch something which makes you excited and waiting for something to happen, especially if with all the effects film makers add (music which induces similar feelings, etc), your body starts 'preparing' itself for an attack (even if you believe you are perfectly calm), and adrenaline goes up. However, the attack does not happen and you do not need to physically react, since you are watching a film. At some point your body becomes 'relaxed' again, since the danger had gone, but all the products of the preparation for attack remain in it - you can almost visualise it as having little "doses" of energy bottled up in your body. So, they start troubling you without you knowing it, so they want to come up in some way - be it by more violent reactions, or by being hyperactive, or something else. Of course, in her paper all of that was written on one scientific level which I could not quite follow, so this is my oversimplification, but basically that is what it was about... and I believe there is quite some truth in it.

I never really had the habit of watching television, and my parents never allowed me to have a tv in my bedroom. They always used to say that technology's place is not in bedroom, and it remained our habit till today - neither they, neither I, have got tv or computer in the bedroom (they are in salon, and the tv is usually turned off - we never had the habit of letting tv turned on, as some of my friends did, and it was always off when somebody was not watching it). In the newspapers we read we get printed program for most important tv stations, so we never really turn on tv to see what's on the program or randomly switch channels - we plan what we are going to watch in advance (or, better, they do, since I watch tv maybe once or twice a month, literally, and they watch it as "much" as maybe once a week). So tv is not our master - it is vice-versa.

Probably due to all that, it is virtually unthinkable for me that somebody is able to watch tv for hours daily - and I know of quite a few people who do, on average. I tend to use internet a lot, but even that is within limits (also when I was younger they used to send me away off computer when they thought I was too much on computer in one sitting, so I got the habit of not spending too much time with it at once). So I do benefit from modern life conveniences, but am not their slave. It is possible, all it takes is modus in rebus.

Nothing really prevents you from thinking - it can only create circumstances which eliminate the need for thinking; so you start consuming, but not creating, not because something forces you to do so, but because you deliberately spend your time that way.

[Remarkable]

I too have thought a lot for this problem.Sometimes,when I go for long walks alone I elaborate ideas in my brain that I would usually put aside for later(but I am also a person that has a weakness for lonelines).The thing is that today we have so many actions to take,because of the many opportunities offered to us that we don't find the time to think properly.However,it is not modernism that is doing this to us,it's just we.Because,if you really want to do something,you always find the time and energy,no matter what.And,another point:technology,to work,needs intelligence and thinking.

[Bakiryu]

I agree with both your points, but isn't the availability of technology decreasing our intelligence.

think about it, people are putting their children in front of a tv since they're babies and as they grow up and accustomed to that they keep on the habit.