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Quiet

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Re: Quiet

#21

Post by newfoundglory »

ahartman00 wrote: post #17

Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of course) I was just thinking recently about how great it was to be in high school. Few responsibilities, spent lots of time with friends, homework and work were easy. Of course, then I remember I couldnt live alone, had little money, homework and work seemed hard…

I agree. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at this line:

> Before we could Skype home and feel we’d done something meaningful.

Those golden days where talking to people was so meaningful, not like today where people talk over a distance!

Re: Quiet

#22

Post by 0xBA5ED »

fiatpandas wrote: post #13
kristineberth wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a sneaking suspicion that in the not-too-distant future there will be a very significant cultural backlash against all of this noise, all of this hyper-connectedness.

Could you elaborate on your thinking here? My prediction would be gradually the hyper connectedness becomes the norm while the last generations who remember “quiet” die. Of course there would likely always be small fractions of the population who look to the past and practice mindfulness, almost like how people re-enact the civil war battles. But I would guess largely highly saturated connectedness becomes who we are…

Of course this depends. There's no guarantee people growing up in a hyper-connected world will fully embrace every aspect. It only takes a festering distaste in enough individuals plus a unifying voice to trigger a backlash.

Re: Quiet

#23

Post by aptwebapps »

ahartman00 wrote: post #17

Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of course) I was just thinking recently about how great it was to be in high school. Few responsibilities, spent lots of time with friends, homework and work were easy. Of course, then I remember I couldnt live alone, had little money, homework and work seemed hard…

With respect to that xkcd, while there's some humor in the progression of the quotes about letter writing (which doesn't mean they're completely off target) and some of the other concerns seem to me narrow-minded or silly, I appreciate a lot of them and think they have aged just fine.

Re: Quiet

#24

Post by nostrademons »

Interesting to compare this to the wave of nostalgia for our agrarian past that hit during the 1930s and 40s, leading to novels like Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and The Grapes of Wrath. The past that the author yearns for was the future of those writers.

That nostalgia didn't stop the clock from moving forward or life from getting ever more hectic and complicated. But there seems to be something deep inside our psyches that yearns for "the village": a place where the rules are known, the people can be trusted, and time can be spent rather than hoarded.

Re: Quiet

#25

Post by scirocco »

trevyn wrote: post #11
torpfactory wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that in the future there may be a distinct division between people who have control of their own attention and connectedness and those who don’t. I already see a division between some people I work with - noses buried in their phones all day, and those who tune it out and get real, deep thinking work done.

This. We now have access to two worlds, where before there was one. And it is helpful to be able to choose which world to inhabit at any given moment.

To keep track of your time spent in both worlds, I suggest the app Moments. It’s pretty scary to see

Re: Quiet

#26

Post by groby_b »

fiatpandas wrote: post #13
kristineberth wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a sneaking suspicion that in the not-too-distant future there will be a very significant cultural backlash against all of this noise, all of this hyper-connectedness.

Could you elaborate on your thinking here? My prediction would be gradually the hyper connectedness becomes the norm while the last generations who remember “quiet” die. Of course there would likely always be small fractions of the population who look to the past and practice mindfulness, almost like how people re-enact the civil war battles. But I would guess largely highly saturated connectedness becomes who we are…

Can't speak for the OP, but on my part, it's less thinking, and more a feeling. The unthinking and uncritical wonder is gone. We're looking at all things technological with a more and more critical eye. More and more people are publicly speaking out about the idea that social media and hyperconnectivity are actively harming us.

It feels different than most old ideas that I've seen die before. Yes, of course there's always an inevitable "good old times" moment, but this one... There's something lurking behind it. It's not just nostalgia, it has the roots of a fight seeded in it.

We'll see. Maybe I'm now just old enough that this time, it feels different. But it does not feel like what happened to VHS, or the CD, or land lines, or any number of things that we've declared outdated in the last few decades.

Re: Quiet

#27

Post by rdiddly »

ahartman00 wrote: post #17

Ah, nostalgia. Its amazing how one can simultaneously forget the downsides, while amplifying the upsides. (Not to take away from the authors fond memories of course) I was just thinking recently about how great it was to be in high school. Few responsibilities, spent lots of time with friends, homework and work were easy. Of course, then I remember I couldnt live alone, had little money, homework and work seemed hard…

That xkcd affirms that our sense of time and attention, and of quality and quantity, has been messed up like this since the Industrial Revolution. I can't safely presume what Randall's point is, but if it's to show that this is a foolish thing men have been saying without cause since time immemorial, he needs to go back further. Show me someone from 1600 complaining about the fast pace of life and I might buy it. But showing quotes about industrialization, that were written after industrialization, doesn't exactly blow my mind.

Re: Quiet

#28

Post by jjeaff »

derblitzmann wrote: post #19
vitro wrote: post #6

Meditate as much as you can. Being in the present moment lets you notice your thought patterns and impulses that you act on and puts you back in control. Art of letting go. You don't loose anything if you are not on a Facebook for a week. You don't loose anything by leaving your phone home for a day. Water still flows and birds still sing. When was the last time you saw the sun setting or felt the wind in your face,…

I like your comment, but I gotta scratch my grammar Nazi itch. It's lose, not loose, unless you can tighten anything by having Facebook or your phone. But to add on to what you've said. Meditation is great can help you lose mundane, petty worries and live in the moment, as opposed to the could've beens.

> it's lose, not loose

> It can help you lose mundane, petty worries

So, you're saying you haven't been meditating enough?

Re: Quiet

#29

Post by stephth »

mooreds wrote: post #16
DogestFogey wrote: post #14

A truly masterfully written article that makes us yearn for the days now past when everything, both inside and outside of ourselves, was much quieter. The amount of noise today is unprecedented. I am reminded of the movie _Her_ in which one sees a world where technology can move into the background and augment human relationships. Granted, there are moments in that film when the tech hurts instead of hinders, but com…

If you want to read a really scary prescient fiction book in this vein, check out Feed by M.T. Anderson. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel) Just chilling.

The plot context overview on Wikipedia is chilling just by itself...

Re: Quiet

#30

Post by Hextinium »

mooreds wrote: post #16
DogestFogey wrote: post #14

A truly masterfully written article that makes us yearn for the days now past when everything, both inside and outside of ourselves, was much quieter. The amount of noise today is unprecedented. I am reminded of the movie _Her_ in which one sees a world where technology can move into the background and augment human relationships. Granted, there are moments in that film when the tech hurts instead of hinders, but com…

If you want to read a really scary prescient fiction book in this vein, check out Feed by M.T. Anderson. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_(Anderson_novel) Just chilling.

I highly recommend this book to anyone because it creates a framework for understanding the world from someone who is addicted to social media. It takes the current state of affairs to their conclusions in a rather well made way.
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