Inner Space

My younger sister asked me, “What is your blog on tonight?” I said, “I have to talk about what philosopher I relate to the most.” She replied, “Which would that be?” and I said, “Seneca”
She asked me why and I began to wonder why I felt that I could relate to him the most. In William Powers, Hamlets Blackberry, he talks about Seneca and his work. Seneca talked about not losing yourself while trying to stay connected with everyone, he wanted us to stay within ourselves while still maintaining that sense of connectedness. We all need a couple hours out of our days to just think about ourselves and what we need to do to better our lives, but can we really stand not checking our cell phones that whole time? Chapter 12 suggests that we try having a conversation with someone with out any screens, just a good focused, undistracted chat. Not many of us would be so willing to put that cell phone aside for a couple minutes. Even limiting ourselves to one screen at a time is a step,  when I started this blog assignment I realized that I kept going form the computer screen to my cell phone screen and trust me I stopped that real quick because I don’t want to be one of those people that constantly need to have a screen in front of their face.
Another great suggestion is having other people as your search engines. Start a conversation with these people, ask about things going on in their lives or your relatives lives.  These simple steps make you realize you don’t need technology for everything! There are ways to stay connected without actually being connected.
We need to find our escape, something that makes it easier for this to happen. Some of us think we have found that “something” when in reality they are just running away from the “crowd-induced state of mind.”
“The man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet, will in every place he visits and something to prevent him from relaxing” Once we figure out how to escape these things we will then be able to connect with our inner space and continue to make that connection stronger.

Don’t lose yourself.

A Cooler Self

In chapter 11 of Hamlet’s Blackberry, A Cooler Self, William Powers brings to our attention the works of Marshall Mcluhan. Mcluhan is not only the last philosopher mentioned but he is also what I find the most interesting in my opinion. This chapter stood out to me the most because Mcluahn knew what it was like to be sucked into technology so Powers had, what I would think, an easier time projecting those thoughts he had to all of us rather than getting the information and piecing together what was going on hundreds of years ago with Tables and what not.
Mcluhan is responsible for, “the global village” and “the medium is the message” he knew what was to come in our digital work, those to phrases say so much and are so on point without even having to further explain.
On pages 194-195 Powers explains what Mcluhan’s thoughts were on how we can get away from this technology and how to cut back on it. It was simple, we hold the power to do so, simply, as Mcluhan would say “live more consciously.” Many of us don’t realize we have a problem with technology so it never gets fixed, this is why I am glad I had the chance to read this book. Hamlet’s Blackberry has opened my eyes in so many ways! I noticed since starting this book I am not on my phone as much, I regulate my time because now that I noticed I was always on my cell phone texting and on different social networks I get overwhelmed sometimes if I spend too much time on it. We all need a break once in a while, we all have the ability to remove some of the clutter that technology brings in our mind…..we just need a wake up call.

Changing for the better

I have been sitting here for the last 3o minutes trying to figure out what it is that I could change, I honestly didn’t think it was going to be so hard. After thinking long and hard about this assignment I have come to realize that procrastination is my worst habit, as well as being on my cell phone all of the time. I don’t think anyone is as bad as I am, why do you think my blog assignment is barely getting done at 12:40 a.m? I am really trying to break myself from it but it is so hard! Especially with having ADD, I get distracted by EVERYTHING!  Sometimes my little sister has to put me in check and make me do my homework because she notices how side tracked I get and how much I end up putting off things that need to be done. I know I can break myself of this terrible habit but am I actually willing to make that change? Yes, because I know if I wasn’t so bad  then a lot of my school work, among other things, would be done with the greatest ability. I would get so much more done and my stress level would go way down because I wouldn’t have to worry about little things that could have easily been taken care of when they needed to be.

Now, my cell phone is a different story. This habit might be a little harder to break, I know I am on it way too much but I can’t seem to give it up. There are days that I don’t feel like texting anyone or talking on the phone but I am still constantly on, whether it be Instagram or my pregnancy app forums. The same reasons I need to change my procrastination habit are the same reasons I need to change my cell phone habit. I also text sometimes while driving which is the worst because I am putting myself, my unborn child, and others in danger. I just cannot stand hearing my phone *ding* and not check that text message and if I turn the sound off I am constantly thinking if I got a text message and end up looking at it anyway! Lately I have been getting pretty good at only checking my phone at stop signs or stop lights but I slip up every once in a while. Thats when it all goes back to managing usage, if I knew how to manage my cell phone use better and got used to leaving it alone for certain periods of time then I know leaving it alone while driving wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Shakespeare on the Beauty of Old Tools

In chapter 8 of Hamlets Blackberry, William Powers explains the use of technology and moleskines. Moleskines are notebooks used for various things, journaling, grocery shopping lists, note taking, etc. Today the use of moleskines have died out because now we mainly use our cell phones to jot things down in the “Notes” app. Personally, I think using the moleskine notebooks are way better than using our cell phones to hold our information because then we can always go back years later to see what was going on with our younger selfs even though William Powers does make a good point about there being more easier, efficient ways to do so. His friend had the right idea because we can always go back to what is written on paper, our cell phones and tablets break and sometimes we are unable to get that information back.
Powers also talks about William Powers reference to the, “Distracted Globe.” The distracted globe was pertaining to three different things, the mind, the world, and the audience. In Hamlet, Shakespeare says, “Yea, form the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures pasts, that youth and observation copied there, and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain unmixed with baser matter.” When he says that he will wipe away all of the trivial fond records, the books, forms, and all of his troubles from the passed he  is talking about cleaning out his brain of all the messes and distractions of everyday things to be able to focus on just one thing.
I will admit this chapter was a bit confusing before talking it over with the class but I can say I truly enjoyed learning about Shakespeare’s ways.

Little Mirrors

In chapter 7, Little Mirrors, William Powers goes into talking about Johann Gutenberg. In Gutenberg’s time books weren’t accessible to just anyone because only so many books were made. Inventing the printing press was very helpful, people we’re able now read books that were only limited to certain people and now able to read in their own privacy. This became very popular as said at the starting of the chapter, “Even before the books were finished, there were customers ready to buy them.”  Chapter 7 also talks about the popularity of the iPhone 3G, people worshiped this phone. From a camera to a web browser and music player, this phone did it all. It became known as the Jesus phone, people we’re forming lines with their sleeping bags three days before the phone was released. After reading this chapter I realized how obsessed we get over a glass screen with only four buttons, it’s actually quite sickening that we let something like that control our lives.
I really like when Powers says, “The gadgets we buy and see every day are designed, built, and marketed on the premise that it’s an unalloyed good to always be in the crowd. And that turns out to be a lousy idea. It makes no sense to work and live in this fractured, always-on-call fashion. Rather than bringing the crowd even closer, out machines should help us find some distance, whenever we need it.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself, this device that is supposed to help us and make our lives so much easier isn’t really doing it’s job like it should. People get so lost in it that they forget they actually do need to distance ourselves once in a while from these things.

Is Google making us stupid?

How much does Google really help? Some my say having access to Google make things easier, some will say it is making us dumber. Although it does make things a bit easier, how much do we actually need Google? Too many of us are ignoring the fact that we have billions of books in these buildings  called Libraries.
In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Dumb?” he brings forth the argument about Google dumbing us down or not and how much it takes away from our capability to focus and want to read a full passage word for word.  In my opinion Google doesn’t make us stupid but it is definitely making us lazy. I remember my second semester of my Junior year I was home schooled and it was so easy for me to just look up answers on Google instead of actually having to do the assignment, after a while I realized I was just cheating myself. I might have missed out on textbook information but I was always able to (and still can) turn to Google to look up anything I am interested in and build up my knowledge about a certain subject. Depending on how you look at it Google is good and bad because it’s not making us stupid, just lazy.
It is also mentioned in the article about the way we use clocks, we have learned to obey it. What would we do with out a clock? jobs, school, dates, dinner, and waking up would be thrown off. “In deciding when to eat, to work, to sleep, to rise, we stopped listening to our senses and started obeying the clock.” Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
We need to take a step back and realize how much we let little gadgets and gizmos control our life. It’s all about moderation, if we learned how to limit ourselves in what we let other things do for us then things in our head would be far better and more sharp than they are now.

The Spa of the Mind

In chapter 6, The Spa of the Mind, William Powers talks about how after a long day at work he would watch Jazz videos on YouTube to relax and unwind. We all have that get away we go to at the end of the day, maybe even the middle of the day if our day is that hectic. Do we every actually stay focused on that one get away or do we get distracted by other things? Of course it is easy to get distracted, just as Powers did when we wondered on to looking at advertisements and news headlines he really didn’t even need to know in the first place. Dealing with the internet it is so easy to get sucked in and side tracked by the different things that pop up, it’s even happening to me as I am typing this out.

My get away, as expected, is make up. Make up relaxes me completely and makes me forget about everything for awhile, I get into my zone. Although I would like to make a career out of it and it would then lead to me being very busy, I know I can always count on make up to be my get away. Very much like Seneca, writing was what kept him busy but he had also used writing to block everything out and focus on what really mattered to him! We all have a get away where we are able to step away from everything and “recharge” whether it be playing a sport, taking a walk, or reading a book.  That is what I liked so much about this chapter, it got more into disconnecting and finding oneself while doing so. Seneca teaches that there is more to life than just wanted to stay in the “loop,” we need to focus on keeping that strong peaceful connection with our inner self and focusing on the more important things in life because it is so easy to get caught up in it all.

Walking to Heaven

 

In Hamlets Blackberry, William Powers not only talks about his life and experiences with technology but also the lives of a few great philosophers. Chapter 5 focuses on Plato, the same way Powers has his “Internet Sabbath” Plato also practiced ways to stay connected with people but also took the time to take breaks from the to think from time to time. 
We all need a break once in a while and many of us don’t see it. We always wanted to be connected to find out what is happening next. In the book it is explained how “going outside the walls” would help with that break from people so they had time to themselves to think just as we should turn off our cell phones and computers to “go outside the walls.”
I think if we all kept the same mind set as all of these great greek philosopher then things would be more simple. Our communication skills would be so much better than they are now, we would actually be able to have conversations face-to-face with out any distractions because we would now how to keep that connection going without feeling the need to check out phones to respond to a conversation we are having with someone else via text message.
William Powers asks a very important question in this chapter, “When is the last time you went off with a friends and left the world behind?” This question really stood out to me. How many of us actually leave our cell phones behind when we are out with friends? not too many.. We are always taking a couple seconds out of a conversation or what ever activities we are doing with a friend to check out what is going on with Instagram or Facebook. To me it is really all unhealthy, it is also quite frustrating on how horrible all of our communication skills are getting. I am glad I am realizing this now and having a child soon because when my son is my age I will have had made sure he has it in him that he doesn’t need to always take his phone out, he needs to communicate face-to-face with no problem.

Accidentally Spiritual

In William Powers recent blog he mentions how the screen was devouring the rest of his life and I think now a days too many people are letting that happen. We aren’t realizing how much we let technology take over our lives. It becomes a daily ritual, check Facebook, check email, text messaging, or just playing games. All of this happens right when we wake up and right before we go to bed…every…single..day. You would be lying if you said you didn’t know what I was talking about.
I remember at the beginning of the semester when we were getting into Powers life and learning about his “Internet Sabbath” and thinking it is very much a religious form. He gives up the internet for the weekend all the time just as we fast or give something up for lent.
We get so consumed by things that we do not realize it most of the time so I think if we too Powers approach it would be a lot healthier. We would gain back the time the we were leaving behind with family members and dear friends. Just because we are all together in one room doesn’t exactly mean that we are all paying attention and using that time to interact with one another. Too many of us will sit in a room with three or more people and we will on be on our phones the whole time, letting out a couple words every so often. We need to start limiting ourselves and get more connected with everyone eye to eye rather than just through technology.

like, like, like

I was just having a conversation about this not too long ago with my younger sister. We have noticed that the amount of attention you get on social networks is based off of how many followers and likes you receive. It really is kind of sad, some really talented people aren’t getting the recognition that they deserve. For example, there are tons of make up tutorials on YouTube but if you only have a few thousand followers versus a million followers what do you think people are going to watch? You can be an amazing make up artist but it is all about the followers and feed back that you get that will get people to take time on you.
Some people actually work for the likes and followers that they have by putting out positive photos, videos, quotes, and blogs while others just take certain revealing photos just for the likes and followers.

In my opinion most people who are promoting certain brands are sell outs, they are doing it for the attention. They want to do it for the money and to become more popular which definitely get to their heads.. I’ve seen it happen before. When doing something you should do it because you are passionate about it, not because you’re going to gain riches and fame.
For me, when I post certain pictures or videos on Instagram it is not for the attention at all. When I post things it is so my followers can enjoy little parts of my life, things I enjoy, make up, hair, nails, things like that. It doesn’t matter to me if I get 300 likes or 10 likes as long as people genuinely enjoy what I post. If people enjoyed it to the point where I was getting passed around Instagram or YouTube and becoming bigger and even getting to the point where I was earning money for things things then of course I wouldn’t be complaining, but thats not why I do what I do.