Quality Time
I just read “Electronic Devices Redefine Quality Family Time” at the New York Times. Mykala sent it to me.
When people are sitting in their living room, physically close to one another but absorbed with the goings-ons on different screens, the “parallel planes of existence” idea doesn’t seem so bad… kind of like reading the paper and occasionally looking up to discuss what you article you are reading — that is, they’re not entirely parallel planes… they do intersect.
But when people can’t make it through a movie without seeking out multiple dopamine hits from their digital devices… that really starts to worry me. I mean, movies are the thing that are, classically, the most passive way to absorb a long form story or narrative. If we can’t even stay with one flickering screen long enough to get a deeper understanding of a single topic, what can we do? Everyone becomes so ADD-addled that they demand their information in not just sound bites, but HuffPo-esque snarky little media snacks?
Here’s the thing I like about newspapers: they have a beginning and an end. Let’s say you’ve had a long week, and the Sunday Times arrives that morning. “I’m going to read what interests me from every section”, you say. And you do. You catch the article about Moby’s remodel of his house in Hollywood, then you read the life-changing “Is Sugar Toxic” in the magazine section. Sports: you find out just how bad are the Twins are doing. The point is, you are skipping around, just like you can online. BUT, there’s an end. “Well, that’s the end of the paper for today.” And you go about your life. And while you do that, your brain considers the implications of sugar in our life, of whether you’d like your house to look anything like Moby’s. You take a BREAK and get some time to absorb that which you read.
There is no end to the New York Times online. You’ll always be wondering what the newest article is, even at the expense of finishing the one you are currently reading. You are pulled ever forward, never having time to crystallize your thoughts about any one issue. Books, newspapers, TV with limited channels — they allow this crystallization. With the internet, you have to enforce that time to make sure it is there — that’s difficult.