Ask yourself this

[pesco]

[Permalink]

[thekaz]

@pesco

We’ve become a society where most people do not take the time EVER to pause and reflect on their lives. The normal reaction to alone time now is pull out a digital device for distraction.

While I agree mostly with the conclusion, based on the brief description of the study (anyone have a link to it- I’d be interested in their conclusions), I am not sure this is the only conclusion you could come to. If I were sitting there with a button in front of me, I’d likely be thinking, “I wonder if this thing will really shock me?” or “I wonder how much of a shock or what it would feel like.”

I doubt my thinking would be, “there’s no way I can go without a screen for 15 minutes! I need to bash my head in but I only have a button that will shock me! maybe I can shock myself to death!!”

[chenille]

@thekaz

If I were sitting there with a button in front of me, I’d likely be thinking, “I wonder if this thing will really shock me?” or “I wonder how much of a shock or what it would feel like.”

Yeah, I think I would be curious about the same. I wouldn’t necessarily want to try it more than once, but you know, there’s a name for people who do:

[crenquis]

I have a fallback for such situations:

[tachin1]

I stared at this for about a minute before I noticed how much time had gone by. Doh!

[Jardine]

@chenille

Yeah, I think I would be curious about the same. I wouldn’t necessarily want to try it more than once, but you know, there’s a name for people who do:

That or masochist.

Plus how strong of a shock was this? Was it one where most people would say “Ow” and some would say “That didn’t hurt at all” or was it one where most people would scream in pain?

[Boundegar]

So… wait… we’re addicted to screens and deeply uncomfortable with peace and quiet; so the solution is a website.

[Tropicalweasel]

10Q seems like a really fun project. It reminds me of an assignment from my ninth grade english class. She had us write a letter to ourselves that would be mailed back to us after our senior year. It was a very interesting experience hearing from my past self; what was the same, what had changed, etc. i am hoping the 10Q project will have a similar impact.

[OtherMichael]

I used to concentrate/meditate much better than I do now.

Back in the early 90s, I was living in Budapest, Hungary working as a (n untrained) teacher of English-as-a-foreign-language. I spent a lot of time walking around, I regularly went to movies that were in some language I didn’t speak but subtitled in Hungarian (which I didn’t speak/read enough to understand), I would go on my langauge-school get-togethers that conducted hours-long seminars in Hungarian; I would just phase out, let it flow over me, enjoy and understand what I could, and not-understand and enjoy what I couldn’t. I also memorized a lot of poetry at the time, since I could run through the lines in my head (I think “Jabberwocky” is the one I can remember today.)

I’d love to get back some of that mindfulness… but what do I give up? I’ve already given up playing the piano, reading lots of books and watching lots of movies. I’m not going to pass up on coding or playing with my kids or spending time with my wife.

 

 

…

 

 

… I could post less online, I suppose…