You know that movie “Limitless” starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro where this guy named Eddie Morra (played by Cooper) is able to write books, clean apartments, eat, dress and do pretty much anything faster than ever all because of a little pill? Well, this ain’t no Bradley Cooper movie and there is a reason why it takes special medication to perform a multitude of tasks in a flash that such a character would not be able to do otherwise.
The reason is because we are not supposed to be doing one dozen tasks at once in the first place. Olympians don’t win medals that way, Athletes don’t win championship rings that way and people don’t Crush It that way. So, how in the world does someone like me who used to take my time drawing pictures that would not be complete for days as a kid and developing screenplays for months as an adult suddenly have the shortest attention span ever?
On any given day, at any given time, I’m usually working on a computer with somewhere between two and five tabs at the minimum open in an Internet browser. At the same time that I bounce back and forth between blogging, reading news stories and checking on jobs, I’m listening to music on my iPod, checking for text messages on my cell phone and probably trying to finish watching the latest DVD movie rental on my television screen.
Still, the mere possibility of realizing I’ve become one of the millions of multi-tasking people with short attention spans that are getting even shorter as a result of new technology and the Internet didn’t dawn on me until I read one of the latest blog posts over at Terrible Analogies that referenced a Vitalic video featuring man's best friend.
It was a hot and humid Tuesday night in the city on July 19th when I clicked on a link that took me on over to YouTube so I could watch this doggie video. As the first few scenes started to play, this 3:05 video barely made it past the one-minute mark before I found myself opening a new browser to complete another task as the video continues. There is something wrong with this picture. In a day and age where we have many resources and tools that offer great convenience, giving us time to do more, why is it that I still can’t seem to even make it to the end of a short online video with a running time of three minutes and five seconds?
Tiffany Shlain was right......we are all connected! However, there can often be too much of a connection with technology that becomes so normal that we tend to miss out on a lot without missing out on a lot, if that makes any sense to those reading this post. It is important to unplug once and a while because real , personal interactions and moments of peace and quiet are just as crucial to healthy living as being connected to a virtual world.
If we don’t slow down, we’ll have hell to pay sooner than later. I’m going to try and use these conveniences for good and in moderation like Eddie Morra because it would suck to end up like his friend, um....what’s his name? The guy who plays Detective Jake on CSI: Miami....you all know who I’m talking about. If you don’t know, please watch the movie or at least check out some old episodes of “CSI: Miami,” around the time when Horatio was dating Eric’s sister......then you’ll know who I’m talking about.
Until next time.....
Consider the importance of focusing on what you are doing at the moment and giving that activity 100% (or at least 80% if you’re eating or having a telephone conversation) of your attention before moving on to a new task.
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