Existentialism and attention

[squirrelman42]

Note: I've also posted this on my blog and my facebook, so in the offchance you've seen it somewhere else, it was probably me.

It is absolutely stifling. The world is so big and so connected these days, but are we getting closer? No, we're more distant than ever. The hundreds of people we keep in touch with are all but fleeting glimpses of the full body. We as a people see less and less of the whole as our attention spans dwindle into nothing. And yet, with all of the people, all of the two hundred fifty plus people I am connected with, how many see this? How many see me? How many people do you even know? Not are acquainted with, but how many people do you know?

We all want attention, but instead of getting any quality attention from the people who mean the most, we get fast hellos and goodbyes in a blink. The only way we seem to be able to establish who means most is through memes and chain e-mails that say "forward this and anyone who sends it back is your true friend."

We've been given this amazing tool, this interconnectedness that has granted a well of knowledge and voices. But have you ever noticed that you feel loneliest when you're surrounded? Spend a day in the city, in New York or LA or Boston or Chicago and see how many people notice you. Now live there. Now connect all of those cities and everywhere in between. You know how many people are out there and could be paying attention to you, how many people that used to be important that paid attention to you before. Compare that to how many people actually are. You can have a few deep ones or many shallow ones. You can't have everything, and unless you are truly special, nobody will notice at all.

 

[meatloaf231]

and unless you are truly special, nobody will notice at all.

This bit interested me, as I have a theory about the internet: no matter what you do, no matter how well, there is a seven-year-old on youtube who can do it three times as well.

 

[black lincon]

OK that just made me feel depressed.
#1 yes we are getting closer with things like xbox live and the PlayStation network we can communicate with people that we've never had the opportunity to before. and before you say there not meaningful your wrong there to if you make an actual effort people you may never meet can be your friends i have a few online that i honestly consider friends I generally care about what happens to them and vice versa.
#2 simple solution to not getting fleeting hellos actually try to start a conversation. not just give up when nobody cares what you think. thoughts like that just lead to suicide.
#3 yes big citys suck but if you want everyone to know you don't move to the largest city's in the world. and that whole thing about not standing out id have to say your in high school and want people to know your name. you know what works do something interesting whether of not its sane. like punching someone it may not make you friends but if all your interested in is being known then that works

 

[Limos]

Personally I don't know anyone very well. I am acquainted with lots of people but I don't have any close personal relationships. Maybe it's a character failing of mine that I don't want to get to know anyone.

I am much happier with casual contact through anonymity. In real life I am very closed and private, I don't speak to people I don't know and even then I'm withdrawn.

I prefer being anonymous and talking with other anonymous people.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

I'm sure many of you have read this article, but it really sums up some of the reason why even as we become so much more advanced, we are not becoming equally happier. http://www.cracked.com/article_15231_7-reasons-21st-century-making-you-miserable.html (Yes, it's on a comedy site, but it's very poignant.)

A lot of the problems you're mentioning here are problems with some of the aspects of our current culture: namely that everyone desperately wants to be famous. With things like Youtube we all feel like we could potentially be the next great hit. It's not gonna happen, even if you are the funniest guy in the world.

 

[fulano]

Call me old school, but I'm not too interested in chat rooms, facebooks, or whatever. The most socializing I do on the net is almost constrained to this place and I'm fine with it.

I don't feel I need to matter to everyone in real life, or on the net. I just try to be laid back and do my best in enjoying the ride. I've got friends outside of the net (and I'm still considered antisocial, mind you), and can exchange viewpoints and opinions with some pretty nice people in it.

Look at it like this: No matter how isolated you think you are, chances are you really aren't, you just have to look around a bit more and you'll probably start noticing people. That kind of thinking of "sucks to be all isolated like me," is what keeps people in the long run feeling alone instead of finding some proper healthy social interactions to sustain themselves.

As for the internets: If it's gotten easier for people to relate to each other then it's gotten easier to get ignored. Think of the net as some form of a heightened reality of human interactions.

It could be worse, and you could fall victim to unwanted attention. Just do a search at encyclopedia dramatica for XxPrincessPunkxx to get a small taste and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Vidiot]

I've been shouting this message from the rooftops, so to speak, for years and it still goes unnoticed. Half the people who actually listen either think of me as a paranoid, tin-foil hat wearing crazy, or they know the truth but are too afraid to risk anything and rock the boat. This is a guided, intentional move to separate the classes even further. The people who own us, (and I mean that literally, we're all bought and paid for, divided up by the big fish as potential cash cows) don't want people to care about others.

I feel the reason we're isolated is because we're forced to give more and more of our time to others we'll never meet and further their goals just for the permission to eat and sleep somewhere warm. 15 years ago, a single full-time job could support a family of four. Now, my fiancee and I work 4 jobs collectively, and we're still barely able to afford food on a daily basis.
My point is simply this. We're Serfs. We're the labor class, and just like in the feudal days when serfs legally not allowed to learn how to read, we're being gradually conditioned to care more about what's on TV tonight than your neighbor across the hall who's pondering suicide. We're given all the information we want; after it's been filtered and chopped into bite sized portions. When's the last time you read a non-fiction book just to learn? Think you can still do it? I doubt it. Even the public school system is exacerbating the problem by cutting class times shorter and shorter so students don't have to work on their attention spans and instead get shunted off to another class just before they might start questioning the content shoved down their throats. These kids can't even bring themselves to watch something besides a game for more than a half hour.
Even I'm a hypocrite for being in classes for Game Design. We're so flooded with entertainment that we rarely have to think about the real world beyond our own routine for more than a few minutes at a time.

Sorry, I guess that was a bit much to read at once; I'll try posting in short, easy to read, bits from now on.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Humanity is no better off than it was at any point in history, and we never will be.

We call ourselves the tool-using species, but we are really the only tool-dependant species.

 

[fulano]

My point is simply this. We're Serfs. We're the labor class, and just like in the feudal days when serfs legally not allowed to learn how to read, we're being gradually conditioned to care more about what's on TV tonight than your neighbor across the hall who's pondering suicide. We're given all the information we want; after it's been filtered and chopped into bite sized portions. When's the last time you read a non-fiction book just to learn? Think you can still do it? I doubt it.

Oh...

Even the public school system is exacerbating the problem by cutting class times shorter and shorter so students don't have to work on their attention spans and instead get shunted off to another class just before they might start questioning the content shoved down their throats.

Hmmm...

These kids can't even bring themselves to watch something besides a game for more than a half hour.

Yep.

If people tell you that you are nuts, it is because you are advocating a revolution, mein freund.

I'm not entirely sure you realize it, but you're speaking about the eponymous Class Struggle. And trust me, you are not alone in that one, either. You just happened to have been born in a place (Europe or U.S) where it's not popular to talk about that kind of thing--a place where sporting a Laissez-faire ideology is seen as a virtue by many. Come over to latin america and you'l notice that people may actually listen to you.

I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but you do sound a lot like one Lenin guy to me(which I've read).

I forgot: I do agree with you.

 

[Vidiot]

Thanks. Given the theme of this thread, I actually feel a bit lucky to have an intelligent response that isn't in disagreement. Trust me, it's rare here.
Most people either insist that the system works, and we're all just using it wrong, or they give me the stare that means that everything I just said flew over their heads, and for the last few minutes they've been staring at traffic out the window behind me.

Even my wife insists that if there ever were a revolution in the US (which is constitutionally legal, but anyone attempting one will be put to death) I'm expressly forbidden from risking my personal safety or personal freedom (I.E. Guantanamo)to help said cause. Even further complicating the issue is the fact that we both have family and friends in various branches of the military who subscribe to the "the system works, you're using it wrong" mantra.

[EDIT]
By the way, Kudos to Spaceman for that article; pretty damned insightful.

 

[fulano]

Most people either insist that the system works, and we're all just using it wrong, or they give me the stare that means that everything I just said flew over their heads, and for the last few minutes they've been staring at traffic out the window behind me.

Well, the system does work but to a degree.

But when you take into account the huge disparity of opportunity just because you happened to be born to these people instead of those people one can't help but wonder:

*What kind of chances do I have, and were they always the same?
*How come I can't pay for the same school he does?
*Am I uneducated, now?
*When I started aspiring for things what was really within my grasp?
*Wait, how come I don't have health insurance?
*WTF, what about my kids?! Were we not born in the land of opportunity?

*At what point did I become this isolated?

One very interesting guy said something aling the lines of: "...let's not confuse dissent with disloyalty."

Things do have to change, and a system that isolates people and keeps them apart, fulfilling their duties in function of their own limited opportunities is doomed to crumble under its own weight.

Revolutions do come in many shapes and forms, in trying times they ride bullets, and in not so trying times they ride ballots.
Hopefully yours will ride the latter.

 

[Jamanticus]

and unless you are truly special, nobody will notice at all.

This bit interested me, as I have a theory about the internet: no matter what you do, no matter how well, there is a seven-year-old on youtube who can do it three times as well.

How true... But then that kid on Youtube would be a sort of freak, and thus have less chance of being happy in life than you would.

At least, that's what I think...

 

[Clairaudient]

Sometimes you just have to trust that people out there do care for you, even if it's not explicitily shown at all times. I've felt the things you're describing some times myself. I've had my doubts, but you have to ask yourself if you're constantly caring about your loved ones in the same way that you desire it. This world is give and take my friend.

Something that always boggles my mind when I think of it is that every person you ever see, every person you ever meet had lived their entire life up to this moment. It's not like they were born shortly before meeting you. It would seems so within your own experience, as having just met them you know nothing of the many years of their life. Take riding on public transportation for example. Every single person on the bus has lived every day, month and year of their life up until now. They are not faceless pedestrians, they are people. People who obey the same watch, the same sun and moon in their passage through time Breathe the same air, require the same food and shelter and work the same jobs. Yet we do not speak to strangers, we'll never know the wonders of their lives and their greastest accomplishments or fears. All of this information is locked within their own unique web of life, with bits extending out into other peoples lives. Call it 6 degrees of seperation I suppose, a 6 degrees that we'll never know.

 

[meatloaf231]

and unless you are truly special, nobody will notice at all.

This bit interested me, as I have a theory about the internet: no matter what you do, no matter how well, there is a seven-year-old on youtube who can do it three times as well.

How true... But then that kid on Youtube would be a sort of freak, and thus have less chance of being happy in life than you would.

At least, that's what I think...

Completely true, but I never really took the theory that deep. It was just a "anything you can do youtube can do better" thing.

 

[LewsTherin]

Sometimes you feel existencial, and realize how much of todays society are just glorified peasants/idiots. I just listen to some John Lennon, write some poetry, and be thankful for the intelligent people I come in contact with in my life.

Your situation doesn't matter, it's really what you do with it.

 

[WTEricson]

I think you are dwelling on the depressing side of exastintialism. Yes even our emotions for our parents are an addiction, but when you look that deep into the rabbit hole you get lost.

Look at the most possitive side of it, that helping others for the greater good of society should be a goal in life... not money, not drugs, not... ok I'm not evolved enough to give up games yet... but they are turning into a way to connect millions of people and share ideas, so they aren't negative to my brain. If you affect those people in a possitive way and explain things to them their brains will absorb it (eventually), thus you made the world a better place in some small way instead of slowing the evolution of the mind (as most forums turn into "flames" based on addictive properties such as the adrenalin addiction that makes most sweat at a forum).

Remember fundamental addiction is an evolutionary survival instince, but it is not a "bad" thing if the true positives outweight the true negatives. Try your best to improve society in any way you can (even through opening minds in a forum) and you may have what is needed to have "something" beyond death.

 

[John Galt]

I don't think it's a sort of conspiracy on the part of some superior group, but rather just how we act as a whole that causes this sort of situation. Granted, this new form of isolation does have its roots in capitalist ideology, but that's simply because we've arrived at this situation on the Ayn Rand Express. We could be just as isolated in a classless society in which comradeship was a virtue and a sense of community was encouraged. Think about it for a moment, the only reason we can associate an economic ideal like capitalism or socialism with a social situation is because we forget to separate those two things out beforehand. If we realize that the two are not mutually exclusive, we realize that it is possible to have brotherhood in a capitalist society as well as having isolation in a classless society.

I think if you give people a large group of potential friends to choose from, they will generally spread themselves as thinly as possible rather than focus on the few while there's limitless possibilities elsewhere. Of course you can't claim that this trait will effect everyone, some people are content to just stick with one thing while others are crippled by indecision.

In summary, just use Occam's Razor. What seems more likely? A conspiracy to isolate and control humanity perpetrated by the few, or an innate function of human psychology?

 

[squirrelman42]

I wasn't trying to depress anyone with this, but I had a moment of stunned realization when I realize how few meaningful conversations I have when compared to the number of people I know on such things like facebook.

Also, I'm glad to see that people have actually given thoughtful responses to this, which is one reason I continue to post on this site.

 

[Saskwach]

The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound.
Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book,
and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.
- Assyrian Stone Tablet, 2800BC

Not quite applicable but I was looking for an excuse to pull out this quote and it was just relevant enough to work.

 

[black lincon]

I wasn't trying to depress anyone with this, but I had a moment of stunned realization when I realize how few meaningful conversations I have when compared to the number of people I know on such things like facebook.

Also, I'm glad to see that people have actually given thoughtful responses to this, which is one reason I continue to post on this site.

little hint if you want intelligent answers(which i assume you do) don't visit facebook.