Monday, April 20, 2015

Unplugged Day 3

I'm starting to think that being unplugged from push alerts from my smartphone must be like it was for the early settlers in this country.  The information flow is controlled to what I let in or what I seek to know about.  There is more of an element of peace and yes, control over what information ventures into my personal zones.  The internet does allow for quick sharing of information and news.  But maybe most of it should be withheld and thought out more before it is shared?

I'm reading one book about events in the 1700's when people traveled via ship over the oceans.  Hand written letters was the medium used then.  It would take a month or so for letters from the United States to reach Europe via ship.  This would delay the receipt of important instructions to diplomats representing the early interests of the United States overseas.  Not the best communication system, but nothing catastrophic occurred based on this system.  It was understood that people just had to wait to receive information.

Now we have an instantaneous communication system that we may not be respecting as we should. The internet allows for immediate sending and receipt of information to others.  With that comes a higher standard of communication.  We should take care to ensure our communications over the internet are first most efforts to share information of value; create forums for sharing of ideas; provide positive insight to others; facilitate understanding of each other; and provide warnings regarding dangerous situations.

I listened to about 3 minutes of news on television and that was enough.  I got the sense of conditions in the city in that time.  The same repetitive negative stories without any dialogue on what can be done to modify conditions.  News minus actions to prevent future negative stories sometimes seems of little value.  It's great that news can provide warning at times, but most of the news is after the fact events.  We're informed and nothing else.  So as Day 4 begins I continue to control how technology controls my day.

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