Thursday, October 1, 2009

Interweb 1, attention span 0




Here is a strangely comforting forum discussion about the scourge of the dwindling attention span.

Posted by Strikethru
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14 comments:

Shute said...

Didn't read the whole post but attention span, yeah, it is like a...sorry there's a song on the radio and...what was I saying? Anyway, I don't have that problem, whatever it is.

I think the interwebs are great. I just received a copy of Good Mail Day and it was through this blog that I think I heard about it, so thanks whoever it was.

Whatever you do, don't stop blogging, Strikethru! Control technology, not it you!

Jon (I sent you an email at tiny-dog, hope it got through.)

October 2, 2009 at 1:23 AM
deek said...

So, what's with the picture? Did I miss something?

The reason I ask is because last night, while my wife was shopping at Old Navy for something called a "Cardi-Coat" and entertaining my son (he was dragging wire baskets full of balls over to me and toppling them over), I found a table with a basket of crayons and some coloring pages.

I sat down, picked a page and actually ended up having my family wait on me so I could finish...

October 2, 2009 at 4:51 AM
bengkia said...

ugh. I know what you mean. I find it extremely difficult to focus on any one thing for a prolonged period of time too. It's rather dismaying.

I put my sketchbook in front of the monitor to try to be more productive, and it's helped me make better use of my time; but I do still end up clicking away and being distracted in between drawing though...

I liked that link you posted, even though i didn't finish reading the whole thing. This post particularly amused me: "There have been days where I don't feel like doing anything, and just roam the corridors of the booth, sometimes pretending to be a velociraptor."

October 2, 2009 at 6:24 AM
Anonymous said...

I don't know whether this would make things better or worse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI

October 2, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Mike Speegle said...

Shute totally beat me to that joke.

Yeah, I think the crappy attention span is a sign of the times. Last night I went one of 1,035 Starbucks near my house with my Olivetti and managed to write an entire 1 1/2 pages over the course of like three hours. Too easily distracted by conversations and low-fat coffee cake and shiny things.

Mmmm...shiny things.

October 2, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Strikethru said...

Jon, I just replied to your mail. Your ST is on the way! How do you like Good Mail Day?

Deek, I have no idea. I just drew it when we were working on the Silent Types. It is based on an old sheet of stickers that was lying around. Crayons are fun so I can see why you were detained.

Ugh... our brains are mush. Maybe we just think this because we have a vague recollection of not using a computer/cell phone/ithing for 12 hours a day... its now the norm so the younguns won't know the difference.

October 2, 2009 at 11:44 AM
Joe V said...

I just received my order of "Infinite Jest" from Amazon, by David Foster Wallace; I've not done NaNo, but I intend on reading "IJ" through to completion.

This will require some discipline to stay away from the netbook and TV both. I don't know if I'll be able to do it, distractions being so prevalent.

I did end up reading "The Stones of Summer" a few years ago; now THAT was a challenge, but a good read in the end.

~Joe

October 2, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Shute said...

Thanks, Strikethru for the confirmation of the email. I always feel less certain about sending emails than snail mail, for some reason.

The book is great but I have only managed to flick through it so far. Very nice pictures. It even has some neat stickers in the back. The whole mail art and ephemera thing is drawing me in. Scrapbooking was just too 'feminine', if you know what I mean, whenever I saw people doing it but now I regret not collecting some of that stuff when I was dragged in and out of those kinds of shops in the past.

I can't believe I am getting into rubber stamping and stickers; though it could be good therapy for ADHD tendencies that manifest sometimes (that sounds like cognitive dissonance). Another distraction.

October 2, 2009 at 4:06 PM
rad-tastic said...

Oh don't worry. I can barely pay attention enough to get my horribly complicated essays for literature theory done. You are so not alone. I can't even pick up a book now...not only has the interwebz killed me, but my classes have necro'd me.

October 2, 2009 at 4:37 PM
Little Flower Petals said...

I sometimes wonder who and what I would be without the internet and other related distractions. I'd have ridiculous amounts of free time. Somehow I suspect I'd still find ways to waste all that time, but...yeah, the Internet is good at chipping your life away, two or three minutes at a time. It's a wonderful horrible thing.

October 3, 2009 at 4:04 PM
Monda said...

Distraction is the death of me. Having very little attention span to begin with, all this tech just fuddles and already befuddled life.

I'm seriously considering running away for a techless weekend.

October 4, 2009 at 7:26 AM
Shute said...

Hello
Just wanted to say I read Silent Type journal last night and really enjoyed it; some great work, moving and entertaining. I feel like I know some of the people behind the names that I see, just a tiny bit more, on Strikethru's blog here. I don't know where a discussion takes place, so I am posting this comment hereabouts.
Thanks again and congrats to all the writers and Strikethru productions (snail mail sent :-))
Jon

October 9, 2009 at 2:21 AM
Strikethru said...

Thanks Jon, perhaps you'll contribute to issue II? (Not that I know when that will happen)

October 16, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Shute said...

Yes, I will impose some poems on you and her indoors has promised to include a photo of the quilted typewriter cover that she knocked out last year, if I do. Roll on issue two.

October 16, 2009 at 9:00 AM

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