Redefining the Narrative

An oldie but a goldie. Kind of nice to see a crazy car action movie get this sort of critical thought =P 

Could you go without TV for a month?

This lady (whose blog is quite interesting) is doing it, and I wonder if she finds it will affect her much.

To be honest, I don’t watch much TV at all. Up until I was in high school, we had an old school Panasonic CRT TV (the ones with the huge ba-donk-a-donk that collected heaps of dust), to accompany our awesomely password protected dial-up internet.

One fateful day, our television stopped working and for reasons that escaped me, my father couldn’t see a reason for replacing it.  We could get the news from the internet and newspapers! he would say, and as a 13-14 year old, this was indeed quite devastating. 

But one gets used to it, and we didn’t get a new television until 4 missed seasons of Australian Idol later, my grandma moved in briefly and protested she would be deathly bored during the day if there was no television in the house.

So we introduced the 1984-esque screen back into our home, but I never quite regained the urge to park myself on the couch and absorb the broadcast.

That’s not to say I’m a non-commercial-media-consuming-angel though, my medium of consumption has just changed, to the very laptop I am currently on.

For if I was to quit TV for a month I would find it relatively easy and not miss much.

Ask me to leave my laptop, phone or internet for the same amount of time and I (embarrassingly) think that I would suffer some massive withdrawal symptoms.

Why?

I guess I am so used to be hyper connected that when I am not in some sort of contact - Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Messages, Email (the epitome of double edged swords) - with my mates and the community at large, I feel like I am somehow missing out on something, I feel I am letting people down somehow, or shirking my responsibilities.  

The (not so) surprising thing is though, when I do go on a hiatus, be it due to travel or lack of reception/battery, my world doesn’t stop.

I start to focus on what is happening in the world around me a little more.

That is awesome, true. Sometimes, I will be honest, not all that much is happening in the world around me (waiting rooms, etc…though that is a bad example, waiting rooms are fantastic fodder for people watching).  I remember when I was younger I would look with disdain at people that were glued to their phones texting, headphones in and isolated from their environment. “Look around and smell the roses/BO/fumes dammit”, I would internally fume. “Tsk tsk, all these people, wrapped up in their own world”…

Isn’t it ironic that I am sometimes now one of those very people? What is that saying…sometimes the very thing you fight to be is the thing that you become? Good ol’ Anakin Skywalker.

So on one hand, I do realise the importance of being *present*, being there for the people around me, being fully, 100% involved in the conversation.  

I remember asking a Mormon friend who had just returned from his two year mission what the biggest difference being back was, and he said “Technology man! What is up with it! Every time I’m in a conversation with someone they pull their phone out and chill on Facebook! What am I, not interesting enough for you? I mean, I go to a party and the photos are already online, and I’m like DUDE! What were you doing at the party?”

Reminds me of a quote I once heard — If a party’s photos aren’t on Facebook…did it really happen?

So I do realise the importance of being present.

On the other hand, I also love being in constant contact with my mates, especially while I am overseas. It makes me almost feel like I haven’t left at times, and that is one of the gifts of social media…

So I guess, like anything else, it is all about balance and moderation. There is a time and place for being in contact, and the world won’t stop if I don’t check my email for a few days (although it will take me equally as long, if not longer to then get through the backlog… #firstworldproblems).  

At the end of the day, I am a social being. We are all social beings and as much as we would like to live passively, in front of a telly or computer, consuming thoughts, images and ideas that aren’t necessarily aligned with what we believe in, sometimes it is important to put the devices down and get some air.

The internet doesn’t *need* us, as much as we would like to think it does =P

Cheers.

PS — I totally didn’t cover the main point I wanted to, but that’s ok. For another post.

PPS — Want to QUIT? Here is a step by step guide :)

….

I will come back to this in a few hours once my thoughts are more coherent. 

But seriously. This is the third time in two days that people (including coloured!!) have associated whiteness with innoncence and purity and such rampant racism is beginning to do my head in.

Source - Hunger Game Tweets

Quite an interesting take on why Adam Parr left Williams in such an unexpected manner…

“The Mole pondered further. Perhaps, he thought, Bernie had convinced Frank to agree to his terms and Parr did not agree. That was the kind of thing that would lead to a resignation. Frank might have the utmost respect for Parr, but he and Ecclestone go back far longer and he knows that having Bernie as an enemy is not a good idea, even if you are strong. With FOTA a spent force, the individual teams are on their own.”

It is quite an interesting affair indeed! I would probably agree with the Mole, in the light of what has happened and the political climate in the sport at the moment, what other reason could there be?

It makes me wonder about the future of F1, especially as someone interested in entering the industry. Indeed, being an engineer in a team doesn’t necessarily mean I will be directly affected by the politics, but as I have followed the sport more and more closely over the recent years, it is obvious certain personalities and characters have a tight hold on the way the show is run.  The question is, how long will this continue for…and when those characters are no longer around, what will the sport look like?

Perhaps then there will be opportunities for new — and different ideas.

Perhaps, on the other hand, this is how it always will be.

Only time will tell. Someone has to start though, and the question is, was Parr one with new ideas who just came a bit too early?

Interesting times.