Dig A Hole/Slow Down ...

I was a Sociology major in college, and sometimes wish I had continued on the path to a graduate degree in the field. I wanted to be an academic and write something earth-shattering, ground-breaking, or at the very least palatable. As such, I occasionally still think in a sociological mindset as I look at what's going on around me...so consider this a brief glimpse of what's been on my mind.

There was once a time in the not-so-distant past (though eons ago, by today's standards) where the microwave oven and the McDonald's drive-thru were the hallmarks of our "instant" society: the very inventions that helped us get what we needed faster and more efficiently than before. But with yesterday's announcement that Ford will be including Twitter capabilities in its new Sync setup in upcoming vehicles, that simplistic paradigm of the past has all but collapsed on itself.

People often (read: all the time) complain that there just "aren't enough hours in the day" to achieve everything that must be done. There's commuting, working, cooking, cleaning, self-preparation and preservation, shuttling, shuffling, shoveling, commentating, officiating, working out, typing, reading, eating, sleeping, and occasionally building long-lasting relationships with other human beings. Resultantly, we (or someone/some entity who claims to have our best interests in mind) have continually found ways to "make life easier" by simplifying our most mundane daily tasks - which allows us more time to fit in even more duties or activities. The more we fit into our 24 hour days, the more we develop ways to condense the time spent on each activity...so as to fit even more in. The more megatropolis-minded among us would believe that Big Brother is somehow behind this, finding ways to streamline our lives in order to perform more, more efficiently. The All-Seeing Eye at work.

The cycle becomes apparent - and vicious - almost immediately. The more "things" we come up with to make our lives "easier;" the more "wonder products" that used to be relegated to late-night infomercials become mainstream devices; the more we continue to sync ALL of our technologies and social media into one "convenient" format or another, the more we will continue to lose hours of our day and aspects of ourselves. It's the last point that really has been stuck in my craw recently. As technology continues to develop (and envelop) around us, we are constantly losing those moments that used to keep us sane. Two-way pagers and Nextel's two-way 'chirp' changed the way we communicate instantly. Blackberries revolutionized how we stayed connected to email when away from our computers. Facebook effectively made "keep in touch" mean something - at least to college-aged individuals (at first). SMS messaging used to be a hassle (my high school cell phone had to connected to the mobile web to receive texts), yet is all but a necessary, "how did we live without it" function now. Apple showed us how to synchronize our music, information, media, and lives ... and then put all of that in one device that fits in our pockets in various sizes. Twitter has almost single-handedly killed (and simultaneously redefined) "investigative journalism." Don't have time to date? eHarmony and Match.com are here to save the day! Whereas interpersonal communication was once important, and was once linked to how we received information, it's slowly becoming obsolete - while the result of this compression has freed us up to do more things...more work, more commuting, more to complain about.

Think about it. Many commuters have once said that the time they spend going to and from work or school is the most peace they get in a day. Years ago, there were no cell phones (or even car phones, like the one I remember in my Dad's 1988 Audi) to distract drivers or shatter that peace. There was no need for a "Jupiter Jack," let alone for a built-in way for drivers to listen to office voice mails, have their email read to them, or check up on their friends' Tweets. Crackberries and iPhones (and their smartphone kin in this technological arms race) have become tethers - not only to the office, but to every individual with your phone number, email address, GMail address, Blackberry PIN, screen name, Twitter account, and who knows what else. They've become crutches, and the more we rely on them, the more we enable other people to monopolize our precious time. The more time we allow them to monopolize, the more "Big Brother"/big money is going to try to compress even further in order to enhance our productivity.

Anybody see the problem here?

The reason that there just don't seem to be "enough hours in the day" is because we have allowed that to happen. Our consumer culture and our need to keep up with the Joneses has pushed us to believe that every new breakthrough is something we just HAVE to have; something we NEED in our lives for sustenance. We all know in our heart of hearts that all of that is not the case. No one NEEDS to be connected to everything and everyone at all hours of the day. No one needs Ubertwitter or Echofon. No one needs Facebook mobile. No one needs porn on their Blackberry! We don't need audible email, voice recognition dialing, or games on our iPod any more than we need TVs in the headrests (or ceilings, or visors). But more time to stay entertained and connected at times when we should be engaging with self (or others!) means more time to work and less reliance on being entertained in those evening hours, which are better suited for lamenting our lives, preparing for the next day, or generally vegging out.

My fear is that we've already gone too far down this path, and the effects are now irreversible. We no longer do for self; we do for others to know what we've done (I say as I ironically plan on tweeting this blog .. follow me @kwarfield .. and feverishly monitor the comments, if any). It's time to change that. By refusing to buy into what is constantly shoved in our faces, we can begin to shift the existing paradigm. Right now, we want everything when we want it in order to account for the lack of time that we feel. We don't have time to waste waiting on webpages to load, so we want them faster ... from dial-up to DSL to cable to FiOS. We don't want to go to the mall, so we shop online. We don't want to go to the movies, so we use Netflix .. and bit torrents (but only if they're fast enough!). It's not enough to have something right when it comes out; we want it BEFORE it comes out, so we bootleg (not a new practice, but in terms of bootlegging media it sure is a hell of a lot easier nowadays). We want the news NOW, so we analyze celebrities and athletes and moguls and even news reporters' Twitter statuses, citing "sources" and substituting real news with unsubstantiated rumors .. updated up-to-the-minute. Immediacy is our downfall: it's the shovel with which we've dug our grave.

Stop. Go back now, before it's too late. The more we've allowed ourselves to be available, the more work our bosses have heaped upon us and the greater their expectations have become. Now everyone is trying to keep up with some imaginary ideal, continually chasing the ever-shifting bottom line. It's led to more midlife crises and pre-midlife burnouts than we've ever seen before...and it makes absolutely no sense when you step outside of it and look for yourself. Slow down! Reacquaint yourself with interpersonal communication! Work smarter, not harder! While it will be almost impossible to change expectations on an individual level, collectively we can help slow our society down and increase our personal qualities of life. Find your personal sanctuary where you cannot be pinged, IMed, called, texted, tweeted, poked, or chatted with. Don't see this as a drop in your productivity. Instead, call it your personal revolution...your strike out against the establishment...your attempt to get your life back.

I don't like where we're headed, and I refuse (or will do my damnedest to try not) to allow techno-society to drag me down with the ship. My quality of life is more important to me than how connected I am in the social networking technosphere. My time is my time, though you're welcome to join me. Maybe together we can slow things down and get back to a somewhat simpler time, you know, circa 2002 or so.