Is anyone else totally checked out yet?

[lewisnotmiller]

Oh, sorry, missed an important part there.

How deeply I'd like to believe that doing those things would be possible, and if they were, if it'd really help with the crushing anxiety of not doing enough constantly and not being able to identify what exactly is worth pursuing on a day to day basis and what will pay off.

I don't have a problem with people. But I am pretty exhausted with "hanging out," as it were. But mostly, I am tired of tending to continuous stream of stuff that I can't really keep up with or determine what the worth of any of it is.

Something I've always wanted to ask a select few on here...do you guys have useless, meaningless hobbies? Things that burn time and offer no apparent redeeming quality, apart from the fact that;

1) You enjoy them
2) You can't think about serious stuff whilst doing them

Sometimes I need these more than others, but I need 'em. Without them, I'd be a on a one way trip to meltdown. (And this from someone most would call 'laidback'!)

 

[oldbadger]

Perhaps the Internets will crash someday and we'll all be forced to meet each other in actual face to face encounters... Awkward...

I'll know about face to face encounters today.
I'm meeting up with Chinu at St Paul's, London at 1pm.... :yes:

 

[dust1n]

I ignore the vast majority of stuff that floats my way. I don't even use a smart phone yet and barely understand how this ******' website even operates. I'm expected to be a next gen kid and yet I'm operating like an old school pagan. How do you think I feel??

I know plenties about computers and the internet, but I don't have a smart phone or use social media. To be honest, the stuff sort of drives my crazy, or more so, how much of human affairs take place on a virtual world that, like, floats over normal human interactions.

But, really, I like people doing whatever they are doing, but if I'm around unproductivity all the time it makes me feel unproductive, and when I'm around productive things, I become more productive.

Also, I can't compliments or encouragement, obviously.

 

[MattersOfTheHeart]

Seriously, there are so many people and so many images and a seemingly endless amount of information. And it all doesn't really amount to much.

Is anyone else completely overwhelmed but how much nonsense is taking place per square inch on a planet that means nothing other than occupying space in a universe that means nothing?

EDIT: Mod... change "check" to "checked" in the title. Thanks.

It might be a fringe opinion of mine, but thoughts like yours in the OP, once they becomes the norm in a society, is the blast of horns that leads to revolt and violence.

It is that stage when words no longer have meaning, when diplomacy is completely self serving. Humans look around, especially the ones that are suffering more than they should be, and start to plan, start to see the violence in their mind, then look for like minded people, then it begins.

To what end though? Doesn't really matter, because the current state of affairs as you put it, is checked out, might as well be dead, zombies, so it doesn't matter what the end game of revolt really is. It will settle down eventually, but people will be alive again, at least the ones that survive.

 

[Buttercup]

Oh, sorry, missed an important part there.

How deeply I'd like to believe that doing those things would be possible, and if they were, if it'd really help with the crushing anxiety of not doing enough constantly and not being able to identify what exactly is worth pursuing on a day to day basis and what will pay off.

I don't have a problem with people. But I am pretty exhausted with "hanging out," as it were. But mostly, I am tired of tending to continuous stream of stuff that I can't really keep up with or determine what the worth of any of it is.

Definitely sensory overload, from the sounds of it with a mix of youthful idealistic expectations thrown in. You probably want to help fix a million things wrong and feel helpless in doing so, I take it? If you're a student on top of having lofty ideals, you definitely could use a break.

 

[LuisDantas]

Seriously, there are so many people and so many images and a seemingly endless amount of information. And it all doesn't really amount to much.

Is anyone else completely overwhelmed but how much nonsense is taking place per square inch on a planet that means nothing other than occupying space in a universe that means nothing?

EDIT: Mod... change "check" to "checked" in the title. Thanks.

Done.

As for the question, I guess I am. I like information, but often it is impossible to accept how pointless how much of it is.

I usually see it as a growing pain of sorts. It wasn't that long ago that we did not have answering machines, let alone cell phones or smartphones. The decision to leave home to meet someone or to be someplace made a difference. You were explicitly seeking a goal, and in so doing making it impossible for others to contact you by their turn.

These days we have lost a lot of notion of the importance of both things: the decision to pursue a specific goal, as well as the acceptance of renouncing something (the possibility of being contacted by someone else) in order to fulfill our goals.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, those are often actual losses, in that we end up having to consider a lot of factors without even knowing whether they should be seen as important. Lack of choice is usually a confort.

Personally, I advise learning to cook and practicing it as a remedy. Lots of other activities where you can unquestionably benefit from your efforts would serve as well.

 

[Amechania]

The young people I work with seem to live on the web and to have an innate understanding of the usefulness of digiital resources. It's like they have built in search engines. My daughter is already more internet savvy than I am. So information overload really seems
o be an older persons complaint. Anyone over thirty is like last year's phone: growing increasingly obsolete.


.

 

[LuisDantas]

The young people I work with seem to live on the web and to have an innate understanding of the usefulness of digiital resources. It's like they have built in search engines. My daughter is already more internet savvy than I am. So information overload really seems
o be an older persons complaint. Anyone over thirty is like last year's phone: growing increasingly obsolete.


.

That is largely an illusion, though. Information availability does not really translate all too well into increased productivity or creativity, at least not very often.

Valuable as those resources are, they help very little when it comes to lending things meaning. That is one reason why people tend to go to extremes with them, either spending a lot of time or not much at all; there is an unconscious need to seek "completeness" while failing to find it.

On the bright side, that is a blessing in disguise, for the search for meaning is in fact far more ancient than the information overload. Making it more apparent is not a bad thing at all. But we should put some effort at accepting that need and actually addressing it.

Edited to add: remember when I created a thread asking about how meaningful it really is to have books written about something? Writing books, finding or making youtube videos, wiki articles, webpages, facebook posts... there are so many different ways of attempting to leave a trail for others to follow these days. But it is very apparent that the trails worth following are not comparably more numerous as a result.

I guess we should simply realize that, accept that and adjust our expectations. And be at peace with the perception that so much of what is offered to us is, in fact, cheap junk that will do us no good. That may or may not be something worth regreting, but there is no upside to attempting to deny it.

 

[Majikthise]

You can do everything and no one, including you, should expect you to.
Take time for dust1n.
I'm 49 years old, i like to collect old sci fi toys. Sometimes, when nobody's home, i put on star wars music real loud and run around the house with a tie fighter in one hand and an x-wing in the other making ,"pew, pew!!!" noises.
Does me no end of psychological good.
Don't know why l admitted that but sometimes you have to be you. Just sayin.

 

[Straw Dog]

I'll know about face to face encounters today.
I'm meeting up with Chinu at St Paul's, London at 1pm.... :yes:

For the first time? That's really awesome.

 

[LuisDantas]

Some other idle thoughts:

- Taking clear stances may be helpful. The feeling of being "clogged" may be effectively countered by accepting that it is impossible to be reasonable to everyone, and one might as well go on and let the chips fall earlier rather than later.

- Some reflection on the importance of ritual, and of seeking companies that are willing to share efforts in common projects as well. Efficiency is not a bad thing in itself, but human nature demands that we spend time, mainly with each other.

 

[Buttercup]

You can do everything and no one, including you, should expect you to.
Take time for dust1n.
I'm 49 years old, i like to collect old sci fi toys. Sometimes, when nobody's home, i put on star wars music real loud and run around the house with a tie fighter in one hand and an x-wing in the other making ,"pew, pew!!!" noises.
Does me no end of psychological good.
Don't know why l admitted that but sometimes you have to be you. Just sayin.

Ha! I love men who can still act like little boys. One priceless frubal for you, my friend!

 

[lewisnotmiller]

You can do everything and no one, including you, should expect you to.
Take time for dust1n.
I'm 49 years old, i like to collect old sci fi toys. Sometimes, when nobody's home, i put on star wars music real loud and run around the house with a tie fighter in one hand and an x-wing in the other making ,"pew, pew!!!" noises.
Does me no end of psychological good.
Don't know why l admitted that but sometimes you have to be you. Just sayin.

Perfect!!

 

[Straw Dog]

I know plenties about computers and the internet, but I don't have a smart phone or use social media. To be honest, the stuff sort of drives my crazy, or more so, how much of human affairs take place on a virtual world that, like, floats over normal human interactions.

But, really, I like people doing whatever they are doing, but if I'm around unproductivity all the time it makes me feel unproductive, and when I'm around productive things, I become more productive.

Also, I can't compliments or encouragement, obviously.

It is kind of strange. It puts me in a particularly weird position because older folk just expect me to know my **** and all my peers are surprised that I don't know the latest **** about you know who or you know what. It's no surprise that one of my best guy friends is like 30 yrs older than me.

 

[Straw Dog]

Despite personal difficulties, I haven't checked out yet. I decided to ride out the chaos and resist the nonsense until I finally collapse in death. It may be a hopeless lost cause, but **** it. I don't really have much else going on anyway.

 

[LegionOnomaMoi]

Yes, there is quite a bit of ruckus signifying a whole lotta nothing. So it goes.

A friend once asked me to translate "so it goes" into Latin. I think I did it, but can't recall what the result was. "This too shall pass", c'est la vie, "that's the way it goes", etc., have in different ways and in different senses been echoed since as far back as we have evidence.

I gave a lecture once to undergrads for a course on psychology and the law in which I covered something of how not only mental illness but also "the mind" has been conceived of from Homer to the modern day. I quoted from Hamlet in order to show (and argued that it did) describe depression better than the DSM-IV TR (and while the DSM V has subsequently been released, this remains true). Ian McKellen brilliantly analyzes "Macbeth's last soliloquy...which too crudely summarize is a description of total blackness, total despair..." here:

[youtube]zGbZCgHQ9m8[/youtube]

and performs here:
[youtube]4LDdyafsR7g[/youtube]

"Of the writing of books there is no end." So too with information. I have spent god only knows how much time and energy sorting through vast amounts of data from research on climate change and given up at least half a dozen times. I tire of regurgitated arguments long answered which yet remain, surviving in the countless modern information outlets by which we are bombarded and besieged. "Truth" in many ways has been reduced to information theory in its most fundamental, physical manifestation when modern physics adopted information theory as its framework for the description, interpretation, and understanding of reality. Information, alas, is not at al equivalent with meaning.

"This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper."

 

[oldbadger]

For the first time? That's really awesome.

Sure......
But that's my point in connection with Dust1n's OP..... I think that the internet and modern Tech is just amazing. The fact that I can hover over most of the World in Google-maps and look down on everything, and even go into street-view in many countries.... that alone could keep me interested for all my spare time.

A few months ago I 'walked' around and through the Alamo..... from Kent, England! I know there's lots of rubbish out there, but there always was.

Chinu just sent me a text on his English-mobile... to say that he's drinking coffee at Heathrow ....... that's just crazy, that somebody can just press a few buttons and communicate like that.

So I do love our modern techs, whilst being old enough to remember more simple times.

 

[Straw Dog]

I gave a lecture once to undergrads for a course on psychology and the law in which I covered something of how not only mental illness but also "the mind" has been conceived of from Homer to the modern day. I quoted from Hamlet in order to show (and argued that it did) describe depression better than the DSM-IV TR (and while the DSM V has subsequently been released, this remains true). Ian McKellen brilliantly analyzes "Macbeth's last soliloquy...which too crudely summarize is a description of total blackness, total despair..." here:

Well, I do tend to quote Shakespeare more than the DSM when depressed. Seriously though, it does make sense. Interesting argument.

"Of the writing of books there is no end." So too with information. I have spent god only knows how much time and energy sorting through vast amounts of data from research on climate change and given up at least half a dozen times. I tire of regurgitated arguments long answered which yet remain, surviving in the countless modern information outlets by which we are bombarded and besieged. "Truth" in many ways has been reduced to information theory in its most fundamental, physical manifestation when modern physics adopted information theory as its framework for the description, interpretation, and understanding of reality. Information, alas, is not at al equivalent with meaning.

"This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper."

Yes, we are information-rich and yet knowledge-poor. It does amplify the appearance of meaninglessness, but it is only an appearance.

The world is always ending and beginning anew.

 

[oldbadger]

Ha! I love men who can still act like little boys. One priceless frubal for you, my friend!

Please Miss..... I repair clockwork motors. I've got a tiny clockwork tug and it has to pull a little barge laden with lead ingots across our duck pond. Sometimes it makes the other side...... and sometimes..... :sad4:

It's often the simple things that make us happiest......

....Please Miss...... can I have a frubal, please, Miss?

 

[Straw Dog]

So I do love our modern techs, whilst being old enough to remember more simple times.

And so technology is neither beneficial or harmful in itself but determined by its application?

It's cool that you guys are meeting each other in person. You'll have to let us know how it goes.