I know I go on but all this digital stuff is a bit depressing. Just look at these British stats:
The average Briton now spends 50 hours per week on the phone, using the net, watching TV or listening to the radio. However, the mix of how much time is spent on each one has changed radically over the last few years. Daily mobile phone use is up 58% on 2002 and, over the same period, net use has grown 158%. By contrast Britons spend far less time watching TV, listening to the radio or chatting on a fixed line phone.But what else are they not doing? Talking to people face to face? Playing games? Planting giant vegetables? With the collapse of content in favour of Web 2.0 flashing lights and curved edges, it is getting harder and harder to see any societal shifts or any new generation as empowering so much as distracting and that reminds me of one thing - the fall of Rome. Sure you can compare the fall of Rome to just about anything but that does not mean I can't pull out the old chestnut for present purposes. So a few questions:
- What new non-digital activity have you taken on to balance your life...or even to unbalance it?
- What non-digitalness would you like to take on if you have the resources or the guts?
- What would you rather compare to the fall of Rome?
Comments
cm - August 23, 2007 9:29 AM
I consider it a triumph when I turn the computer off before 9 pm. Yes, I am addicted. But I'm not watching nearly as much tv and I'm learning the most fascinating things.
Hans - August 23, 2007 10:01 AM
I echo cm on this one. I'm on line facebooking and emailing alot but it is at the expense of time I used to waste watching TV. Also, I am learning a lot thanks to the access to instant knowledge via the internet. This digital age is allowing me to catalog old photos which I have been meaning to do for a while, so that is kind of a new activity that I think has content (albeit narcissistic content;)). I would like to get my garden at home and at the cottage in order, but I am blaming my baby rather than the computer, for not getting to that yet.
Alan - August 23, 2007 10:07 AM
Digital scrapbooking and penpalling? That's it?!?!<p>I blame the kids for everything. Welcome to parenthood.
Hans - August 23, 2007 11:34 AM
...all these years I've been needing a scapegoat, but now having a child has filled this void in my life!
(Just kidding, Zoe, if you're reading this)
David Janes - August 23, 2007 1:42 PM
<p>
You guys ever see Repo Man? There's a great scene that goes like this:
<blockquote>
Miller: A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.
<br />
Otto: You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?
<br />
Miller: I'll give you another instance: you know how everybody's into weirdness right now?...
</blockquote>
<p>
Anyhoo, yesterday I bought an extra chicken for roasting so I could make soup today. So I look at my recipe book and go shopping and what do I need to get. Two _leeks_. Just saying.
Mike - August 23, 2007 4:22 PM
I guess it would be oil painting, taken up about four years ago. Not much happened on that front over the last 16 months or so. I blame the boy.
I also enjoy having a grandfather ('8 day') clock in the house, although it's more of a 6.5 day clock. I like having something that doesn't require electricity from a cord or batter. Plus I just like winding it up.
Temujin - August 24, 2007 1:13 AM
I have re-taken up the sport of squash. My brother and I used to play as kids, and we've recently gotten back into it. We are super competitive, and rather evenly matched, though he is three inches taller and thirty pounds heavier (younger brother, indeed).
It's odd to think that I abhor the thought of a thirty minute run through the bushes or in my neighborhood for exercise, but give me a rubber ball to chase with a racket and I will run like a mad fool for two hours.
Surely there is a canine joke to be made here.
David Janes - August 24, 2007 9:46 AM
The problem with squash is that it's a lot more fun when you're not the good. Seeing pros is all watching the ball skim back and forth down the wall.
Temujin - August 24, 2007 11:32 AM
Wait... What? There are people better at this game than my brother and I? People who hit it... <i>faster</i>?
gorthos - August 24, 2007 11:34 AM
Wow.. My fourth time trying to comment on this post.. getting kinda x-filesy.. ;)
Non digital activities:
Sumi-e brush painting, making faux tribal masks with Das Pronto, gardening, raising goldfish in my decorative pond to release to the Rideau in the fall and mess with motehr nature
Non-digital wish list:
I'd like to take up SCUBA diving or volunteer to work in any non-north american archeological digs for a few weeks a year.. or raise giant man eating goldfish to release into the rideau in the fall..
Fall of Rome Comparison:
Facebook.. Bloggers tend to slip in posts here and there, when they get a free moment or instead of having lunch or coffee breaks whereas facebook persons are regular non-techies usually who spend the day watching their profile page in the hopes they are friended by fat frumpy exes who dumped them at the senior prom because it helps them relive their faded youth. I hate facebook. Get me of of it please.