I remember when this was all fields
by Steve
Jonathan Franzen is telling us what he thinks is wrong with the modern world. Rebecca Solnit sees the changes to our world post-internet as profound and troubling. These are two recent examples of the personal essay as a wail against life today, particularly life with technology, the internet, etc. Both these articles, at least to some extent, look back to supposedly halcyon days and see technology etc as the destroyers of an idyllic past.
This post picks apart the Franzen piece pretty well, so I won’t try go through the specifics myself. Solnit’s piece probably warrants more analysis though.
She looks back wistfully to a time of radio, television, print:
“That bygone time had rhythm, and it had room for you to do one thing at a time; it had different parts; mornings included this, and evenings that, and a great many of us had these schedules in common.”
She sees this as a time before multi-tasking, short attention spans, a time when you could devote yourself to one thing to engage with that one thing properly. Yet, in the next sentence…
“I would read the paper while listening to the radio, but I wouldn’t check my email while updating my status while checking the news sites while talking on the phone.”
How is reading the paper while listening to the radio really any different to the modern multi-task/distraction experience? It is still not giving one medium your full attention. There were still attention deficit issues pre-internet, as Solnit inadvertently shows. Radio and TV and print have been considered the great destroyers of culture and attention in their pasts. What makes them immune now – nostalgia?
Channel-hopping on your TV is nothing new. Jumping from site to site on your mobile phone is just the evolution of this experience. People have never given over all their attention to phone calls – that was always an experience where you could pretend to pay full attention whilst watching TV/eating dinner/doodling/gazing out the window/whatever else. Let’s not pretend any different. A lack of focus on one thing is not an experience unique to the present day. It is just more visible now, and perhaps more common. But to suggest this is all the internet’s fault is just plain wrong.
“It’s hard, now, to be with someone else wholly, uninterruptedly, and it’s hard to be truly alone.”
This may be the case, but this is as much down to personal choice as it is to the circumstances of the modern world. It is all about how you use the technology – it can genuinely bring you closer to people, but when it stops doing that there is always the “Off” switch. I do, however, concede that it isn’t always that easy.
Solnit then paints a somewhat dystopian picture of us all wearing Google Glasses and not truly engaging with the world and muses about a reaction against technology, primarily as a regression or retreat to the past – a world of knitting and gardening and vinyl records. Surely if this new world of technology is of concern we should be engaging with it in more positive ways, railing against its failings whilst utilising its benefits? If we ignore it, it won’t go away.
These pieces seem to mistake personal reminiscences for universal experience. Not everyone thought their way then, and certainly don’t now. They yearn for a more nuanced, subtle, intellectual view of the world, yet fail to actually properly grapple with the complexities of the issues involved in today’s technology-focused society. Pre-internet, the mainstream media set the agenda, told us what it wanted us to hear and held back what it didn’t. It was state-funded, or commercially funded. Now we have the promise of citizen journalism, we have Twitter breaking stories, or correcting the media. Bloggers holding those in the public-eye to account. The internet has opened all this out. We can speak to more people than ever before. We can hear and read more opinions than ever before.
I’m not suggesting we’re living in some sort of utopia. All of the positive stuff above is still problematic. I’d love to read a full and balanced account of how attention spans are changing, and how that can be traced back through TV, radio, print etc. The vulnerability of the internet is a genuine concern, as is big business increasingly setting the agenda. Social media is not as human as it could be, it enables us to become personal brands more than it allows us to be real people. But these are complex issues – it is not just as simple as painting Google, Facebook, Apple or Amazon as “Evil”, or indeed as “Good”.
I can sympathise with the lower-level irritants, the constant checking of mobiles, the people filming experiences on their iPad rather than actually just experiencing them, or whatever else winds up you or your standard author/columnist. Yet even these kinds of things deserve more reflection and understanding. Are they genuinely new phenomena or just a new way of that human failing of self-centeredness presenting itself?
Perhaps the first step to a proper engagement with these issues is acknowledging that there isn’t some past time when everything was wonderful. Perhaps writers need to move beyond “let’s go back to the distant past” as a solution for the problems the internet and technology generally pose. You can’t write a robust essay through rose-tinted glasses.
And sometimes I wonder if writers don’t like the internet because now anyone can be a writer, anyone can communicate. Those gatekeepers of the press and media safeguarded writers. The internet breaks this down – there are now so many more narratives and so many more narrators. If I was a writer I’d feel uneasy too.
When I was a boy and complaining about something my Dad would look me in the eye and encourage me to do something about it by saying, “If you ignore it, do you think it will go away?” I really like that you incorporated this guiding principal into your post. Well done and thanks for putting it out there.
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Thank you! I find the “putting your head in the sand” approach really frustrating, much better to try and engage with the issue. Thanks for popping by and commenting, really appreciate it.
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Regardless of the “library” credited, the screenshots at the top are from Peter Foldes’ 1973 multi-award winning film “Hunger”, one of the very first films to use computer-animated images.
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Thanks Mikey, good to have the original source on record. The Reanimation Library is a really interesting project showcasing old images, well worth checking out.
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I love your last sentence. It made me laugh quietly, just shy of a full lol.
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Glad you liked it! I had mulled over leaving that last bit out, glad I didn’t now! Thanks for reading and commenting.
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Reblogged this on deejayiwan.
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Thank you for reblogging this – very much appreciated!
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I enjoyed this, thanks. Do you think it’s a case of people not accepting change when we are slap, bang in one of the biggest periods of change we will ever experience.
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I think that is definitely the case. I also think there is the misconception that change is a new thing. When the printing press was gaining popularity there would have been plenty of people thinking the end of hand-written scripts meant the end of civilisation. Prior to that, there would have been people thinking writing things down, rather than remembering them, was a terrible thing. And so on!
Anyway, thanks so much for the comment!
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No worries, I will follow your blog keenly.
P.S. Good name
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Right back at ya! All the best people are called Steve!
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To me the opposite is true. The internet has opened up my mind to many things and beautiful pictures of all types. I still go out but the internet to me is certainly a step above the television. You can not pick the resources you wish to investigate on the television. All my children have used the internet for college and even taken courses on them. Was the olden days, which I grew up in, that great. Sure if you think looking at the radio and listening only was the best you can do. I remember television being a small screen with limited times to view. I therefore prefer now.
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Thanks for your thoughts – really interesting to get a different perspective on this matter. The internet has certainly opened out knowledge to so many more people. I think there is also a lot to be said for the active nature of the internet as opposed to the passive consumption of television. We should acknowledge these positives, and cherish and protect them!
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“It’s hard, now, to be with someone else wholly, uninterruptedly, and it’s hard to be truly alone.”
It’s so true 🙂
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There is truth in that statement, but I think the really interesting thing is how we learn from it as individuals. We can all turn our phones off, put our laptops away, go for a walk and get away for a while. But how many of us actually do that?
I had a week away from the internet this summer and it was hugely refreshing, but it is a challenge to build that off-time, no matter how small, into my daily routine.
Thanks for stopping by!
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Good article i believe technology as a production tool is excellent technology as a consumption addiction is troublesome
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Hi, thanks for the comment! It is a great point. The production/information/communication aspects can really improve our lives, but it is up to us to use it in a productive and meaningful way. I guess we are all prone to addiction, to some extent, just technology (be it TV, internet, video games) makes it easier to get obsessed, and are often designed to keep us coming back for more. It is a difficult issue.
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It is up to us but so difficult to keep our balance
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Hey, I really liked your post! I’m new to blogging and I just set up one called politicalnoob.com and I don’t know if it is good or not. It’s directed towards people who want to know about politics but can’t understand what the news is trying to say. I tried to simplify some of the issues so that people can start to understand what is going on! I only have like two posts though and if you want to read them and give me some feedback with a comment, that would be really cool! It’s politicalnoob.com if anyone is interested. Again, really great post and I really like your writing!
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Hi Michael, thanks for popping by. Sounds like an interesting idea for a website – I shall take a look!
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[…] big hello and welcome to everyone who has come across this site after seeing my recent post on the WordPress Freshly Pressed page. I hope some of you consider following this blog or […]
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Reblogged this on ★アヤ アニサ★.
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Thanks for reblogging, much appreciated.
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No problem, i do like reading your post 🙂
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A friend of mine emailed me the following quote yesterday: “Anything invented before your 15th birthday is natural. Anything invented between your 15th & 35th birthdays is new and exciting. Anything invented after that is against nature & should be prohibited.” – Douglas Adams
I’ve no idea how old Franzen and Solnit are, but it seems to fit. I especially disliked Franzen’s tone of disdain and pity for writers he ‘respected’ turning to Twitter.
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What a great quote – thanks for sharing and for stopping by!
I think it is the tone of disdain I take issue with too. The medium isn’t actually the message here – you can communicate in all manner of ways through social media etc. Whenever I read pieces like Franzen’s I get the impression that the author hasn’t ever really engaged with the subject themselves, which is crazy.
I wouldn’t make broad sideswipes against, say, books as a medium, that would be daft. And I certainly wouldn’t if I’d never read any!
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Reblogged this on SML-VIEWS.
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Thank you for reblogging!
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Great read!
Congrats on gettin’ pressed!!
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Thank you! And thanks for popping over!
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Some great insights. Every generation bemoans something which is ‘eroding the youth’ and ruining the next generation.
I’ll bet riding horses was seen as a major problem when that first started back-knows-when.
People love a good moan. I agree that all the tech all the time isn’t good and yes we can stop it or turn stuff off – but we don’t generally. It is difficult to focus when the world is on a computer screen.
As for the net opening the gates to all writers, yep – creates a tsunami of shit writing so it’s hard to see the good stuff. It’s good and bad, like a lot of stuff.
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All excellent points – thanks for the comment!
It can be hard finding the good stuff – I think finding good curators helps (Twitter is great for this) and I think as technology gets more sophisticated search/tagging/etc can help too. It can seem overwhelming though – I know I’ve waded through a lot of bad stuff to find a few good writers. It is worth it though!
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I like this. You make me less afraid of the same world, by saying it is essentially the same as the old world. Thanks because this is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. Great job getting freshly pressed!
I do know one thing that’s changed. I used to be a great listener. I used to be able to actually hear and respond to what my friends were telling me with concern and caring.
And now, even though I don’t have a smartphone and still read books, real books, I have a really hard time listening. Because I’m reading about her life on a social media site. I find myself anticipating what I’m going to say next or what I want to say. I feel like I am the center of the conversation when I really should LISTEN. I think the problem is, we’re talking to each other less and we’re the center of our own conversations.
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So true, I feel like ever since getting a smart phone my anxiety levels have increased. Always an interruption or something to check or stats to review. I feel like I need an vacation from technology…. Except I would want to document that vacation and put it on instagram or something stupid that would ruin it.
http://aubreys642.com/
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So, so easy to be tied to your phone! In many ways having a smartphone saves me time, as rather than spend hours drifting on a laptop I’m more focused on finding what I want/need. However, it is often too tempting to leave alone when it is by my side. It is a struggle.
I’m quite lucky in that I take terrible photos, so documenting via Instagram is less of a temptation for me!
Thanks for your comment and for popping by!
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I think a lot of how we look at modern technology depends on age and exposure. That may sound prejudice but I know many older people who just do not get it because they are a bit scared of it all. I remember watching my kids growing up and being on the PC chatting with 4 or 5 different people at the same time, it totally blew my mind. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. But they could because they had been exposed to it right from day one.
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Age has to be a factor – it is incredible how quickly kids pick things up and we’ll pretty soon have a generation of adults how cannot remember life before the internet.
I guess this has always been the case. Franzen suggests the 1950s were a time of stability, yet I imagine there was a lot of concern over new technology (or at least the spread of it, ie TV) in a period of great change…
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Truly enjoyed your rant. Yes, Solnit (whoever she is) lives in a bubble-past. Your rant bubble sits bubbled next to hers. You show the clarity of a broader view. Now see the even bigger bubble floating…connecting to your bubble wall… 🙂 honestly did enjoy this post!
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Thanks for the comment, and I like your bubble philosophy!
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Reblogged this on Simplicity in Seattle.
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Reblogged this on cheluvsyou78.
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