Online Social Networking Overload

I wrote this in response to an invitation from a friend to join UNKY, an online address book service.

 

Ya know, this sparked some thoughts for me. I’m going through a radical simplification process in my life currently — for example I’m off facebook, and using the computer much less, etc — so I’m going to  pass on UNYK. I did look into a bit and it seems like a good idea, keeping updated on contact info, but I personally have found it to be a myth that organizational tools like computers and social networking sites like facebook or maybe even UNYK or Plaxo (similar service) make our lives easier/better. Two reasons come to mind:

1) Motivation. For as long as I’ve remembered I’ve always looked at actions according to their intentions/motivations. It seems clear that the motivation in the for-profit world — even when the apparent reason is something good like keeping people in touch — is something that doesn’t serve us (all of us) in the long run: money from advertisements, or similar stuffs. And the skinny on ads, now that we’re talkin about em I find summed up nicely in this quote: “Beware of the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world.” (Ben Okri) I’ve come to realize that ads tell stories, and if we pay attention to them, they can alter our world, our consciousness, our focus.

2) Localism. I’m less clear on this one, as yet, but it seems to me that computers, TVs, cell phones, while being very useful for sure!, can quickly result in taking us…ok, let me speak personally here…they can quickly suck me away from the world around me, as my attention is grabbed by one exciting thing after another, one friend update, or youtube video, or piece of news … and soon I’m lost in this constructed, virtual world which has little connection to my real life around me, which is what gives me joy. And this is ironic, isn’t it?! because these tools were meant to connect us to those around us in the first place!

 

I think karma and abundance are good concepts to combat this technology suck I just tried to describe … karma because: cause and effect, we bring into our lives what and who we are ready for at the time — so why sweat it? :) Just be ready for what comes up, and then be fully present with it. And abundance because I’ve found that a lot of times, a desire to hold onto something/someone comes from this fear in me like oh, what if I lose this? It’s difficult to describe this one concretely, but it seems to me that the urge to accumulate or store more than necessary comes out of a belief in scarcity, whereas acting from abundance means more letting things pass through us when the need arises.

 

This all reminds me of an old wall street journal comic. It has this guy talking on a phone, looking bemusedly at his toaster with a sheet of paper in it. “Something’s wrong, I’m receiving a fax on my toaster!” Haha, maybe you had to have been there….