multi-tasking

Text and drive. Walk and chew gum. Work out and scroll up.

Occupy leg-extension machines. Occupy traffic lights. Occupy public space (for private use.)

At least we no longer spread our newspapers on public transport (I found myself the only hard-back book reader on the plane).

Public space used to lord over private space (build the highway right through an ethnic neighborhood). Now it’s the other way around i.e. unintended use of the common for Uber, Amazon (public road, post office etc..).

No eye contacts. No “hellos”. The gym’s front-desk guy was into his phone. Self-serve check-in. Me + machine.

The less engaged we are with others, the more self-absorbed. The less compassion: Uvalde, Pelosi attack, Sandy Hook, Seoul crowd surge, Ian and Central Florida.

We can’t blame all on compassion fatigue (there were none to begin with). We skip hard news for trivial comments, or post impressions. As in Six pence none the richer ” Don’t dream it’s over”: “in the paper today, tales of war and of waste but you turn right over to the TV page…”

Science helps us live longer. Tech in turn diminishes its quality. Hence, more in quantity less in quality.

Long ago, people retired early ( shorter life span e.g. Montaigne at 32) to travel and to unleash inner creativity. In short, to make life’s last leg a quality one.

U2 Bono was big on this point as showed in his latest “Surrender” memoir.

With so much information out there, we still bury our heads in the sand, suffocated and submerged in data deluge. Bandwidth at full capacity. Unable to choose, we might as well rely on our pre-conception.

Safter, easier to follow the path of least resistance.

Decades ago I went through a traumatic event. Post-traumatic stress disorder, self-recriminating and survivor’s guilt. Recovery was slow, emotion numbed. Memory like a blur.

Under proverbial “witness protection program”, I assumed a new id, a new A number (Alien) in a new environment. Reborn. Lucky I was still young and college campus was relatively non-threatening i.e. homogeneity (academically conducive).

Work was flexible, wrapped around class schedule.

That institutional town was courteous: “Hi”, “Hello”, “Hi” “Hello” (on a few snow clearing paths). We unavoidably bumped into one another. That structured and predictable environment helps put my recovery on a fast track.

With internet, we’re facing a different ball game. Everything under the sun is out there, in your face (algorithms). Suit yourself. All smokes and mirror. More knowledge less wisdom.

Our uncharted minds are fed with more information than any previous generation. More data and more years to live. But not all data are equal. Multi-task could only help us consume more X’s but not Y’s. Our preferences, pre-sorting and prejudice were already set at an early age.

Eventually, we end up with skipping “right to the TV page”. We’re all at our worst inflated selves with more of the same day in and day out, serving as predictable “filters” of what’s floating and flowing in cyberspace. Data on steroid. Data on the move, with us followers of its every step of the way.

Walk and chew gum. Leg extension machines for I-phone scrolling. Skip to the Red-alert ping. Stimuli/Response. Occupy ourselves. Public space = private space. Cyberspace is neuro space . Where there is a phone, there’s home.