I've only been in this class a
week and some of the things I've learned about myself already make me
uncomfortable. Over the weekend, I printed out the reading assignment so I
wouldn't have to be on a computer to read it - because duh I would get distracted.
I even put my computer in another room and had my mind set to get the reading
done in a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately, I forgot to put my phone in
another room. I noticed that and just told myself that I know how to buckle
down if I need. The phone shouldn't be a distraction. I know you already see
what happens next coming, but I honestly didn't. A friend of mine started
talking to me about the movie "Her"(10/10 would recommend.) I wasn't
being distracted; instead, I was being a friend. It would have been incredibly
rude of me to just ignore her. So I didn't. I even told her that I was working
on something and couldn't talk for long, and yet I talked - at least for
another 45 minutes. 45 precious minutes. It's uncomfortable to realize how addicted
I am to distraction. While reading about the various software that exists to
help people focus, I thought about how cool the idea was but how I would never
use it for myself. All the programs the he talked about required the strong
will of the user to actually work. January 26th Reeba does not have that type
of will, and that's a sad thought.
So I had to ask, "Why am I so addicted to distraction
anyway?" The answer's simple. I don't view my most frequent distractions
as well distractions. Friendship, conversation, dialogue about a topic of
interest - those are all things I value. That's what I was doing instead of
reading "The Distraction Addiction." My texts were enhancing my human
experience. What I fail to see is that I was avoiding key aspects of what make
up that human experience, mainly being responsible with academics. Bare with me as I try and make the following connection. In the movie "Her" the
main character Theodore Twombly falls in love with his operating system who
calls herself/itself(who knows?) Samantha. I like a good love story so of
course some part of me thinks it's kinda charming. However, I couldn't shake
the underlying discomfort I was feeling while watching the movie. Here was a
man who essentially convinced himself that technology enhances the human
experience to the point that he relied on technology for one of the most
important connections we as humans enjoy. He enhanced his experience, but
really he was just escaping it. He was distracting himself. And what better
distraction than the voice of Scarlett Johansson. As real as Samantha felt, at
the end of the day she was a piece of technology. The real world and love in
the real world seemed hopeless to him. Therefore, he essentially distracted
himself with Samantha.
So what the heck am I trying to say about distraction anyway? At
least for me personally, I think distractions are what we use to trick
ourselves. We tell ourselves that we absolutely have to do something now. Who
cares if there are 80 pages to read? My friend's watching a movie and obviously
she needs my attention more than school work. We tell ourselves that it makes
us better friends or smarter individuals (for when I spent hours clicking
through Wikipedia articles). Technology and all its methods of distraction are obviously
positive enhancements to our lives, and not purely excuses used to avoid
homework. Essentially, distraction is a form of escape we've convinced
ourselves is a form of enhancement.
Sorry Teddy. Samantha didn't enhance your life, but it did help
you escape.
Unfortunately, I have never seen the movie "Her" so I can’t really comment on that part of your post but I would like to focus on the distraction part. A while ago, I read an article on how social media has caused people’s rate of attention to decrease substantially. I’ve also seen a video about a study that tracked people’s eye movement when viewing sites. They found that people read short bursts of information all the time but when it comes to a full article, many more times than not, people read the first few paragraphs and then their eyes travel away from the text and to the side bars for the next piece of information.
ReplyDeleteWhen you spoke about distraction, I immediately thought about attention spans and flashy lights on screens which distract us to look for the next piece of information we crave. I definitely believe that social media distracts and things like commercials on TV, tweets, posts, and short articles are the things to blame. Even the news has shortened their stories to less then 5 minutes to keep our attention. We essentially have short bursts of information forced onto us every minute we are doing anything related to technology and now it has become our nature. It has come to the point that sitting in a 3 hour class is almost physically impossible because our minds start to wander. We are programmed to get information fast and at the moment. Reading that 40 page paper is short of impossible because it is too long. We want the knowledge to be given to us in as little amount of time and text as possible so we can move onto the next thing.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2012/01/25/is-social-media-shortening-our-attention-span/
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/mar/11/technology-internet-pupil-attention-teaching
Reeba, while at it's core I think you're right about 'Her', Theodore uses the relationship with Samantha to shield himself from the ever more disappointing aspects of his personal life, its more important I think to note how organically he found himself attached. Theodore's experience started off like anyone using a new piece of technology, he slowly learned about new features and ways he could use it to assist his life, and this alone can make someone dependent upon its advantages and enjoyment. How different is it using your laptop to check facebook or any other digital interaction? There are other forms of communication to connect to friends, but this is easier, and I'm not sure if its any less meaningful of a relationship because it was done the easiest way. The movie 'Her' blurs the line between using technology to connect to other people and the technology becoming the other person. So while it is obvious now (due to current technology not matching the interaction with another human) that a conversation from a friend is a more important distraction than endlessly watching Youtube videos of puppies, that fact might not be so easy to determine if a computer could somehow talk to you like Scarlett Johanssen for example.
ReplyDeletePS: I completely agree still though that the whole relationship was super uncomfortable to watch