{"id":2104,"date":"2010-05-19T14:12:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T20:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2010-05-19T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2010-05-19T20:14:08","slug":"too-much-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/archives\/2104","title":{"rendered":"Too much information"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook makes me unhappy.<\/p>\n

Let me explain that.\u00c2\u00a0 In the last few months, I realized that the time I spend on the internet is split into two different categories.\u00c2\u00a0 The first is social networking like Facebook & Twitter, random entertainment sites, and things of that nature.\u00c2\u00a0 The second area is blogs, Flickr, educational sources, and the news.<\/p>\n

It is the first area that really gets me, that makes me angry<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 I do not feel good when I am spending time on sites in the first category.\u00c2\u00a0 Every day I feel more inclined to disengage.<\/p>\n

Now, I’ve been bumming around the internet since I got my first AOL screen name in 1997 or so. I’m not against the internet, it is marvelous.<\/p>\n

However, there is a subtle drag on my spirit when I read the Facebook news feed.\u00c2\u00a0 As a friend put it today, “I just want to live in the moment!”\u00c2\u00a0 I am living other people’s <\/em>moments, over and over, in a stream of information that just doesn’t stop.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t have my own stories anymore, and the stories that I DO have are uninteresting, banal, and incredibly lame.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel this insatiable need to know, <\/em>but I don’t really <\/em>need to know!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second category makes me happy.\u00c2\u00a0 I like the creative side, I love the tools and education I come across on the internet.\u00c2\u00a0 There are so many positive things that have come about because of the development of the web.<\/p>\n

A mechanism of world inter-communication will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity.
\n(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, 1938)<\/em><\/h5>\n

The internet is a tool, a piece of human creativity and knowledge, but it is becoming<\/em> life for some.\u00c2\u00a0 We reference the collective as if it is alive, as if we are somehow obligated to keep feeding this machine simply because it exists.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend Jaron Lanier’s<\/a> You Are Not A Gadget<\/span>, it is a fascinating read and a wonderful encouragement to think about the history and modern-day trends of the Internet.<\/p>\n

“[You are Not a Gadget] delivers a powerful reminder of the limits of the Web’s capacity to meet our needs-and its power to shape us to its will . . .” -Matthew Battles, The Barnes & Noble Review<\/em><\/h5>\n

I still have not figured out where my frustration is taking me.\u00c2\u00a0 I have friends who limit or delete their Facebook profiles, who refuse to even get an account.\u00c2\u00a0 I am stuck, in a way.\u00c2\u00a0 I use FB to inform, advertise, keep in touch with friends, and keep track of events.\u00c2\u00a0 Twitter has enabled me to communicate with friends that I wouldn’t normally have time to contact.\u00c2\u00a0 I am so entangled that deleting profiles is almost unthinkable.\u00c2\u00a0 Now I must take steps each day to reduce consumption, to slowly wean myself off the flow, and to live my life away from a computer as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Stories are not created by sitting by myself in front of screen.\u00c2\u00a0 Real thought and contemplation does not happen in status updates and fleeting moments.<\/p>\n

I am utterly overwhelmed and consumed by information.<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, I’m exhausted.<\/p>\n

O friend, the heart is the dwelling of eternal mysteries, make it not the home of fleeting fancies; waste not the treasure of thy precious life in employment with this swiftly passing world. Thou comest from the world of holiness – bind not thine heart to the earth; thou art a dweller in the court of nearness – choose not the homeland of the dust.
\n(Baha’u’llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 34)<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook makes me unhappy. Let me explain that.\u00c2\u00a0 In the last few months, I realized that the time I spend on the internet is split into two different categories.\u00c2\u00a0 The first is social networking like Facebook & Twitter, random entertainment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2107,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}