The New Busy

Shitty. Microsoft hasn’t changed their approach one bit since the original false-promise of theirs; that somehow being able to work from anywhere was going to equate to “freedom”… when in fact it does the exact opposite.

Also, their visuals haven’t changed much either… still showing people working on laptops in the grass. The key word here is still “working”, however.

To quote Walter Kirn in his excellent article “Autumn of the Multitaskers“…

“Where do you want to go today?” asked Microsoft in a mid-1990s ad campaign. The suggestion was that there were endless destinations—some geographic, some social, some intellectual—that you could reach in milliseconds by loading the right devices with the right software. It was further insinuated that where you went was purely up to you, not your spouse, your boss, your kids, or your government. Autonomy through automation.

This was the embryonic fallacy that grew up into the monster of multitasking.

Human freedom, as classically defined (to think and act and choose with minimal interference by outside powers), was not a product that firms like Microsoft could offer, but they recast it as something they could provide. A product for which they could raise the demand by refining its features, upping its speed, restyling its appearance, and linking it up with all the other products that promised freedom, too, but had replaced it with three inferior substitutes that they could market in its name:

Efficiency, convenience, and mobility.

Between this and the rest of the technological world focusing on integrating aspects of social media into their products (even Photoshop CS5 has a social networking element built into it now), i’m just aghast at how fully the working world is plunging into the multitasking frenzy. Are you guys REALLY ready for a world where facebook is built right into all your office-based applications? Sorry, i’m plugged in enough as it is…

Tags: hotmail, microsoft, multitasking, the new busy

Frontline: Digital Nation

Sick today… in between naps i happened to catch this episode of Frontline that very closely mirrors my hopes and concerns over the effect that the digital age is having on us. Like many of us, i find myself straddling both sides of the issues i choose to be passionate about. While I worry about how the multitasking generation’s minds are being affected for the worse, i have also helped companies push their 21st-century learning agendas… While condemning the internet for completely overhauling my memory and the ways i process information, I celebrate it’s existence every day with my complete admitted addiction to being plugged in. Are we doing ourselves a disservice? or merely evolving?

It covers everything from the education system to video games to virtual operations in the military. If you are in the mood for something ominous, hopeful and thought-provoking this evening, i highly recommend giving this one a shot.

(6 parts… total running time 1h 26m 13s)

Link to Frontline Website

Tags: frontline, internet, multitasking, virtual reality, VR

The Cure for Discontentment: Use It

Reposted from http://seeinggood.com/the-cure-for-discontentment-use-it/

In my unemployment I’ve become a bit of an Internet addict. Between Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Digg, my blog, and the fifty others in my Google Reader, I could easily fill an entire work week seeking and sharing information. As I’ve trolled the net these past couple months, I’ve realized the digital era feeds into the collective discontent that defines us as a nation—this idea that no matter what heights we reach, there is still something missing. 10 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power; 15 Ways to Shrink Your Waistline; 20 Ideas to Make More Money—these posts just remind us we can always be smarter, thinner, stronger, richer, happier, or just plain better than we are now.

Yesterday I found a post on Zen Habits—one of my favorite blogs—that addresses this very issue. Leo offers several cures for discontentment, including:

1. Change your attitude and perspective.

2. Take some kind of positive action.

3. Do something that gives you meaning.

I think the first is the most useful suggestion, but not for the reason you may imagine. Perhaps our discontent isn’t something to be cured but rather something to be accepted, appreciated, and leveraged.

I’m not suggesting we should accept unhappiness as the norm—just that we need to acknowledge the factors that encourage discontent and realize they aren’t going anywhere. Our society breeds dissatisfaction because it feeds the consumer machine. We don’t live in Bhutan—a nation that measures its success in gross national happiness. We live in a place where every day someone creates a revolutionary diet, publishes a ground-breaking self-help book, and creates a newer, more exciting technology that promises to simplify our lives.

We’re constantly inundated with advertising messages that imply happiness is just a face cream, cocktail, or gadget away. According to Juliette Schor, Boston College Professor of Sociology and author of Born to Buy, we’re programmed to accept the connection between consumption and happiness when we see advertising as children—at a time when we’re incapable of rational thinking. My point: dissatisfaction is rooted in our culture. Hell, it’s part of the human condition: the never-ending pursuit of meaning and answers to why we’re here. While we may find respite from our searching through meditation, selfless giving, and appreciation for what we have, odds are we will never fully relinquish the tendency to look for something more.

That doesn’t have to be such a bleak realization. One of my favorite quotes (anonymous) is “Always be happy, but never be satisfied.” It didn’t resonate with me at first because I didn’t recognize the distinction. But there is one. Unhappiness creates emptiness. Dissatisfaction breeds progress. I believe in acknowledging the factors that encourage discontentment, we can learn to identify the difference between enough and lacking in our lives—and then leverage our discontent for positive change.

If you dislike that your excess weight affects your quality of life, you may start a new exercise regime and become stronger for you and your family. If you’re dissatisfied with the practices in your business, you could innovate and come up with a more efficient, streamlined process. If you’re unhappy with your mother’s experience fighting cancer, you might raise funds to support treatments that ease the side effects of chemo. If you’re frustrated with our government’s policies, you just may run for office and fill a nation with hope for change in a time when it couldn’t be more indispensable. Discontent is only dangerous if you turn it against yourself instead of letting it empower you.

If that’s what you tend to do—if you are, in fact, persistently unhappy—I don’t have an answer for you. I don’t think anyone can offer a complete recipe for happiness in a blog post (or even a book for that matter). But I can offer you a piece of insight that helps me when I start looking for more: if there’s something that’s bothering you that you can control, address it. At the same time, ask yourself this question: can I still enjoy this moment, even though there are things I’d like to change?

Related Reading: The Power of Realistic Positive Thinking

What do you think? Should we pursue cures for discontent? Is it possible or advisable to become permanently satisfied?

By Lori Deschene, Photo Romancement

If you enjoyed this post, please support seeinggood.com by suscribing or sharing this post on Digg/StumbleUpon/Twitter (@BeMeaningful).

Lori Deschene is a San Francisco-based writer and editor. Visit her blog about positive thinking at seeinggood.com.

Tags: internet, multitasking, present moment, psychology, zen

The Autumn of the Multitaskers

I’ve been waiting to read this article for quite a while…
www.theatlantic.com/doc/2007…titasking

come on, read it with me.

Tags: anxiety, epidemic, multitasking

Things that are important to me and things that are not

I used to be a real stickler about using title case text in my blog title line.

Now it doesn’t keep me up at night.

I used to try to promote green awareness.

Now i tire of promoting the “green bubble”

I used to really want my opinion heard too.

Now i gauge whether or not it’s worth the effort it takes to actually open my mouth and use my lungs.

I used to care to archive every single last thing that i thought i might want to see/use later.

Now the internet (and the forthcoming “grid”) are changing the way i think about “ownership” and challenging some of my most fundamental instincts.

Information overload. My ways of thinking are going to have to change if i am to survive this transition without running myself completely insane.

Time for a vin diesel break…
http://4q.cc/index.php?pid=top100&person=vin

Did you know if you reaarange the letters in “Vin Diesel” it spells “I End Lives”??? Holy crap i thought MY anagram-name was cool! I certainly can’t top that.

Tags: 2012, blogging, computers, multitasking, swami