[ExI] lists going quiet, was: RE: list test

Mike Dougherty msd001 at gmail.com
Tue Jul 30 19:51:54 UTC 2013


On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 3:18 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> When you walk through the town, look around and you will see most
> people are staring at a smartphone, or talking to a smartphone or
> listening to a smartphone. It is a change in lifestyle. Their life is
> full up with communicating. This is the first generation that chats
> continually with someone, *anyone*, to stop the feeling of being
> alone.

I think this is an important point.  We generally are natural pack
animals.  Fear keeps our herd very closely clustered around a few
central herd members (these are considered idealist?)  Those who
escape the herd may be very happy but as far as we know they're lost
and gone forever.

> email is for old folk, as the saying goes. So you won't find many
> youngsters in email forums. There are some, of course! :)
> But I fear that thoughts over 140 characters in length are TLDR for
> the next generation.

It's not just the characters per thought count that's going down.
Movie scenes longer than 5 minutes have become too long to hold
audience attention.  A single camera view lasting longer than 20
seconds has become boring.  It's almost as though the flight/fight
response must be continuously active (chasing after a moment of
understanding is also flight) else we might lose the adrenaline rush.
Yeah, the physical reaction is exhausting... the mental engagement is
nearly nonexistent.



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