Fast Food For The Mind
We all know what we should be doing with our lives. We should be fixing the world. Fighting inequality and oppression, ridding countries of poverty and hunger. We should be using science and technology to cure the sick and to help the elderly.
On a more personal level, we should be using this age of accessibility to improve ourselves in a way that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. An internet-connected e-book reader can place almost any piece of writing from the last 2000 years instantly in our hands. Free online courses contain lectures that were previously restricted to only fee-paying Ivy League students.
At the very least, we could be enjoying the greatest creative works of our culture. The most popular art forms of the last century are the novel, the song, the film and the TV series. The very best of these can be found in some corner of the internet, sometimes even legally. From there we can beam them to our televisions whenever we want.
So are our days filled with high culture, deep discussion and world-changing actions?
Not really. Even though they could be. We have the technology.
For most people, the boundless energy and idealism of childhood is crushed by the iron fist of school and work and “real” life. Formerly dreamy little girls and boys are teased about their appearance and their ensuing awkwardness; young builders and explorers are ordered to forget their experiences and to accept a world of symbols and rules disconnected from reality.
School teaches us to conform to the expectations of an authority. A lesson that the world of work is only too happy to reinforce. Teachers become bosses, uniforms change but the work remains the same. Boring. Not the kind of thing you would do in your spare time.
Innovations and experiments are risky, time-consuming and hard to evaluate. Its easier to stick to the tried and tested, to believe the age-old belief that anything enjoyable can’t be educational or productive.
And after so much of our time and effort is spent on the uninteresting, we find ourselves too tired to use technology for high-minded things. So in the evenings we turn to Facebook or Twitter or Youtube for entertainment.
We watch animals do silly things because they’re cute; we stalk and gossip on Facebook because it’s less hassle than actually meeting our friends; we act as if Twitter’s 140 character limit is a limit of their system rather than a limit of our tired intellects.
We even want our art to be easy. We watch derivative shows about impossibly attractive people enacting our shallowest fantasies.
We don’t want to be challenged by art; we’re challenged enough as it is. We flock to drip-feeds of novelty that require no effort on our part. We demand satisfaction without the investment, and that is where modern technology excels.
What do TVs, tablets and smartphones have in common? Massive screens and no physical input devices. These screens were built for being watched, not for complex interaction. Touch is a natural way to interact with technology but it has limitations. For finding the next thing to watch, it’s perfect. For the subtle expression of ideas, it’s lacking.
Where does this lead? It means we consume far more than we produce. And what we consume is ephemeral. We do read a lot, but usually status messages, posts and articles, not novels or long pieces of non-fiction. We watch short videos and play simple games.
When we express ourselves, it is often by “liking” or “downvoting” instead of really articulating. Photos are a popular form of creative expression, but perhaps only because snapping them and applying filters takes only a second. Then they upload themselves to the internet where our friends can like them or, if they feel particularly motivated, tap out a short comment.
Voluntary long-form writing is rare despite the fact that more people than ever own a (virtual) typewriter, and self-publishing is easier than ever before. The slow-burning, deep satisfaction of long-form reading struggles to compete with the brief but instant sparks of pleasure offered by other media.
We’re all tempted by the fast-food attraction of much of the internet, myself included. If he lived today, I might wonder if the Buddha would focus on achieving nirvana or just another high-score.
So what can we do? As usual, I guess the first step is to identify the problem. The next would be to understand it. If my hypothesis is correct, that the monotony of our daily lives leaves us too intellectually spent to do anything other than gorge on mental fast food, then our solution is to make our work more interesting.
We can’t dismiss social media and melodramatic narratives as inferior, that would be to ignore their value. We need to understand what makes them attractive, and try to apply the same thing to “worthier” goals, like teaching, learning and debating.
Above all else we need to find a balance, between consuming and creating. I find creating things to be the most engaging, educational and satisfying use of my time. I think we need more creation in school and at work. Once you’ve had a taste of what it means to make things, it’s hard to spend all your time consuming without feeling like you’re missing out on something.
If we manage to find this balance, we will have made our work interesting. We might all start realising the full potential of our technology and ourselves. And then we might find that we’re doing those things we know we should be doing with our lives.