I don't know about you but I'm reaching a point where having everything online at one's fingertips is starting to depress me.
Remember when a search for any piece of information would involve asking a family member, consulting an encyclopaedia or taking a trip to the library in order to garner that piece of knowledge?
I find this takes the sense of satisfaction, the zen (if you like) out of the knowledge gathering process.
Of course, it doesn't stop at information gathering - just look at what one can buy online at one's fingertips. I had to scour numerous collector's record markets all over the country before I finally got a bootlegged vinyl copy of the Notting Hillbillies with Chris Rea at the Roundhouse. Nowadays, I can buy it in an instant from Discogs.
It's all rather redolent of something I once watched on television some years ago. I don't know if any of you remember the old b&w versions of the Twighlight ZOne (the ones introduced by Chris Searle) but there was this wonderful episode in which the main character, who was somewhat down on his luck and a bit of a loser, experiences a miraculous change in fortune after telling a mysterious interloper that he wished he could be a winner and everything he did would be a success.
From then on, everything he touched turned to gold. He put a dime in a fruit machine, 100 dollars came out. Breaks off at pool and he pots all his balls in one shot. Tries being a stand-up comic - the audience are in stitches at every line that comes out of his mouth.
Somehow it transpires that the man has died. Finding that all this constant winning was getting very tiresome, the character tells the interloper that he doesn't want to be in heaven anymore and that he wishes to go to the other place.
Our interloper replies "But, my dear fellow, this is the other place..."
And that, sometimes, is where I feel our 24/7 connectivity is taking me sometimes....
Remember when a search for any piece of information would involve asking a family member, consulting an encyclopaedia or taking a trip to the library in order to garner that piece of knowledge?
I find this takes the sense of satisfaction, the zen (if you like) out of the knowledge gathering process.
Of course, it doesn't stop at information gathering - just look at what one can buy online at one's fingertips. I had to scour numerous collector's record markets all over the country before I finally got a bootlegged vinyl copy of the Notting Hillbillies with Chris Rea at the Roundhouse. Nowadays, I can buy it in an instant from Discogs.
It's all rather redolent of something I once watched on television some years ago. I don't know if any of you remember the old b&w versions of the Twighlight ZOne (the ones introduced by Chris Searle) but there was this wonderful episode in which the main character, who was somewhat down on his luck and a bit of a loser, experiences a miraculous change in fortune after telling a mysterious interloper that he wished he could be a winner and everything he did would be a success.
From then on, everything he touched turned to gold. He put a dime in a fruit machine, 100 dollars came out. Breaks off at pool and he pots all his balls in one shot. Tries being a stand-up comic - the audience are in stitches at every line that comes out of his mouth.
Somehow it transpires that the man has died. Finding that all this constant winning was getting very tiresome, the character tells the interloper that he doesn't want to be in heaven anymore and that he wishes to go to the other place.
Our interloper replies "But, my dear fellow, this is the other place..."
And that, sometimes, is where I feel our 24/7 connectivity is taking me sometimes....
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