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MengyiTuFirstEssay 4 - 11 Jan 2020 - Main.MengyiTu
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< | The Truman Show | >
> | A Vacation from Habits | | | -- By MengyiTu - 14 Oct 2019 | | | Do we know ourselves better than the apps on our phone? Probably not. The apps we use every day are turning us in directions we are not aware of. We look at things the apps want us to look at. We live in ways the apps want us to live. We have become human beings that the apps want us to become. But what can we do about it? Is there a cure? Even if there is cure, will we be willing to take it, or have we gone too far? An individual may be willing to give up his or her privacy for convenience, but the value of privacy and freedom for the entire human race is incomparable. Or maybe crisis must erupt before reconstruction will be commenced. | |
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> | As Professor Moglen suggested, I made some efforts to recover from this style of life shaped by the technology. I unsubscribed from a bunch of email lists. I put away my phone when I decided that I needed to focus on work. I deleted TikTok? . I thought I would be bored. I was so used to this fake feeling of self-importance from being distracted by notifications and demands all the time. I thought I would feel disconnected. The distractions were the assurance that I was up to date with my surroundings. I thought I would feel lost without them. But that's not the case. | | | | |
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> | I get a lot of fulfillment from having get things done faster. I have more time to get myself updated with news that I really need to know. My thinking become clearer without unrelated cloudy little thoughts hanging above my head. I sleep better by putting down my phone earlier after getting in bed. I have more time and energy to look at my surroundings, my family, and myself. I feel like I have gained back some control, of the flow of time, of how I would like to develop a habit, and of how to get rid of a habit I did not want, all of these are done by selective use of the internet. | | | | |
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Imagine a draft that you wrote after you had taken a week off from
the jangle of your net. How would your writing on this subject be
different if you had the certainty that you are not made by the
technology, but by your habits, just as we all always were, whatever
those habits were? How would the substance, as well as the style,
of your thought change if you recovered your preceding understanding
of the flow of time?
Then imagine a draft in which you have resumed the use of the technology, the hardware and the software, but modified so that your own rhythms of thought were not disturbed by notifications and demands to engage. Imagine that you had the power of the net, but no ads, no distractions or disturbances, but only the ability to do what you want when you want to support your thinking about what you want. This would be my Net. Imagine what you would write if you lived there.
Now, be where you are, just there and nowhere else, for ten small minutes.
Just there, just now, meditating in silence. Write again.
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You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. |
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