Have you tried opening it?

Came across this a while ago...thought I'd share it here!

what’s the Internet doing to your brain?

I’m currently reading The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.  Andy ordered it and I promptly nicked it, although to be fair he did inform me of its presence in the house, which is possibly asking for trouble.

Because it’s hugely relevant to my research – although my book focuses on memory (and the lack of it) it encompasses ways of thinking and learning.  Although Carr’s book is focused on how the Internet and related technologies change how we think, much of it is relevant and the rest of it is just plain interesting.

“I missed my old brain,” comments Carr near the beginning of the book, when he’d started to perceive how he was thinking differently – how he was skimming rather than deep reading, how it got harder to read longer pieces and still maintain concentration.  We are used the world of snippets, of hyperlinks, of immediacy.  Carr is not saying that modern technologies are bad things – he sees the advantages and the potential of them – but he feels a disquiet about what we might be losing.  His is a plea for balance – although it’s true that he seems to see the loss as being inevitable, as we are more and more shaped by the medium of the message, not merely the message itself.

I want to re-read it again after I’ve finished, this time with a pencil in hand – after Andy has read it obviously, I’m not that nasty – and will possibly post a few quotes here and there.  Enough to say for now that this is a deeply fascinating book and worth a look if you are interested in the Internet, how we think, or how they relate to each other, which is what this book examines.

the value of reading without distraction

WHILE WE WERE away recently, I was interested to read an article by Johann Hari in the i newspaper.  He was talking about the value of reading, in particular reading a physical paper book, and how it 'gives you the capacity for deep, linear concentration'.  It wasn't a tirade against the Internet but rather a plea for balance, and the value of reading without distraction.

Because most of the time, we are distracted.

'If you read a book with your laptop thrumming at the other side of the room, it can feel like trying to read in the middle of a busy party, where everyone is shouting to each other. To read, you need to slow down. You need mental silence except for the words. That's getting harder to find.'

- Johann Hari (article here)

He quoted a fair amount from David Ulin's book The Lost Art of Reading - Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time.  I've not read this book, but I want to, and have wanted to since I read about it previously, in another article.

I thrive on variety and communication in many ways.  But sometimes it can become so much the norm that I forget how to withdraw into a quiet place and feel contented doing so.  It's so easy, in a free five minutes or a quick coffee break to check emails, Twitter or Facebook. The article was well-timed for me - my deliberate withdrawal during our break from all these things helped me regain the ability for quiet focus, curled up reading a book without buzz - whether actual physical buzz or simply the buzzing in my head.

I've tried to continue it on returning home - taking care to use my break periods as times where I don't switch on the computer but instead sit down with a book or indeed another task or hobby which requires quiet depth of concentration, instead of constant multitasking and busy-ness.  Of course, often in these 'breaks' previously I have blogged - which may mean my number of entries may decrease or be less in depth - so be it.  Also I feel more able to write in a focused way and I want to prioritise that as my activity.

(Had an idea for a novel while away - am unusually besotted with it and have already written two chapters.  Usually I cringe at my own fiction writing but I appear, finally, to have found my voice.  It feels extraordinarily releasing.)

So I appreciate the art of reading and the depth of concentration it offers - also other things that require me to be alone with myself. We're not as good at being alone with ourselves as we used to be, it seems - it's not just about reading, is it?  But it is a good example.

'Reading is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction.'

- David Ulin

Book and keyboard images from stock.xchng

can a retweet be a prayer?

Reading the newspaper this weekend I scanned the selected tweets section and came across this one from comedian Chris Rock:

Forget the hashtags and the retweets. Japan is going through an obvious hardship so any prayers and support should be genuine (@notchrisrock)

It made me shuffle in my seat slightly. I had retweeted a 'pray for Japan' message earlier that day (admittedly without hashtag), because I felt so ill equipped to post anything worthwhile, but nonetheless I didn't want to say nothing, either.

Always the problem - is saying nothing worse than saying an inadequate something? I still can't answer this question, as my words feel ragingly inadequate in the face of other people's suffering. And the fact that words are my 'thing' doesn't help - what I don't want to do is to fall into the trap about making it about me and how my words portray something.

Which reminds me of Jesus' words about praying - going into your room, and closing the door, not standing on street corners spouting lengthy prayers for all to see. Probing question : if I pray on my blog, am I acting the puffed up scribe, more concerned with my words than the very thing I'm praying for?

Feeling uncomfortable? Me too. But I think discomfort is good. We should always keep an eye on our motives, especially the sub-conscious ones, slyly nipping in around the back.

Looking out Chris Rock's twitterfeed I discover that his previous tweet was: 'Damn shame how some of you who never pray, or don't even believe in God talkin bout " #PrayForJapan " trying to get retweets', which does alter the emphasis slightly, but I'm almost glad I read the second tweet out of context, because it provoked me to think so much about the topic.

It's great to join together in prayers in a way we couldn't previously. Sometimes, typing a prayer into a keyboard and the vast network beyond feels in itself an act of prayer, but the nature of the technology we use means that it could easily become about the pray-ers and (horrors) the best prayers. Wherein I think we really have crossed the line and started 'praying for appearances'. I want to be able to say 'amen' together, to pray together, while avoiding it becoming about ourselves. Which is as challenging in cyberspace as anywhere else.

I love sharing words in prayer, it's a way I express myself to God among others, appreciating the fact we can all say 'amen' together and help each other express the concerns of our hearts. I just have to watch for those dastardly motives that slyly nip in round the back when I'm not looking.

As for the title of this post 'can a retweet be a prayer?', it gives me pause. Do I actually pray before I click 'retweet'? Or am I doing it because I think I should or (horrors,again) because I want to look good? And I mean 'good' in all its fulness.

Oh, I'm such a righteous soul, behold my retweet?

Or, as I mentioned earlier, am I expressing myself in someone else's words - as people have been doing for centuries - in order to focus my prayers? The latter, I'm okay with. The former - eek.

Perhaps the key is to stick with the liturgies of the centuries - but sometime we do want to pray very specifically for something, or feel moved to use our own words. And then again, if we worry too much about our motives, we freeze up completely. And we don't pray at all, which is not good. Gah. In all things, we need a healthy self awareness without getting paranoid about everything we do.

And now I feel genuinely moved to pray, but under the circumstances I hesitate, in turmoil. How to avoid the very thing I'm concerned about?

I'll stick with the following:

Argh! Lord, help?!

blogging with care

I often think about the care we need to take with use of our words. I wrote a more general entry on the topic not that long ago (see here), but there is a sense where extra care needs to be taken in an ever expanding technological age. It is so easy now to write something that flies around the world – whether through email, blogging, Twitter, Facebook and various similar mediums. It overtakes the spoken word – where once we had to wait until a letter was sent and delivered, we can now communicate within moments. It is as fast as the spoken word, and yet it holds the power and permanency of the written. So much of what we say becomes very public very quickly – especially true of blogging.

This is why I have always tried to be careful with this blog. Choosing a public blog is a deliberate decision, and it’s a great medium for interaction of thought. Within this, I want to have the same care with my speech as I would if I was face-to-face with a person, having the same respect and the same wisdom with my words. I want to be honest and I want to aim for transparency in thought and faith – while at the same time retaining a level of sensibility and self-knowledge. I want to refrain from losing my temper because I am having a bad day – I know once the sun has set and risen again, I will very probably feel differently. This doesn’t mean I won’t admit to a bad day – just that I don’t want ill-temper to drive my thoughts. This blog is a therapeutic outlet for me, but I want it to be a healthy one. I want it to be a tool to drive me to think deeper and more clearly in life. That is why I started it in the first place.

I also feel it is tremendously important to be sensitive to issues where there is disagreement between parties. I believe in being honest about my own viewpoint, but I also believe in taking the time to word it properly, to avoid misunderstanding or misrepresentation. Often the attitude of the participants of a discussion is more memorable than the discussion itself. This doesn’t mean I think we should never show disagreements, but that we remain fair and not simply descend to baiting each other.

“It really is high time we developed a Christian ethic of blogging. Bad temper is bad temper even in the apparent privacy of your own hard drive, and harsh and unjust words, when released into the wild, rampage around and do real damage.”

- Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham

As a Christian in a diverse world, and a world of diverse thought, I hold to the concept of ‘seasoning my conversation with salt’ – so that it is a good, edifying, respectful thing, and being prepared to answer others but to do so with dignity and respect. It distresses me to see others hurling insults at each other when they profess the same central belief – and yet show no respect for each other, or no self-examination. This ties in with my thinking on humility – that it is about seeking the truth together, understanding that we will and do get things wrong, but we want what is right (which is not the same as what is easiest, or what we find most comfortable within our world view). I want to reflect this when I write here.

Blogging is an astonishing thing, when you consider how little time it has been in existence – how recently the technology has existed to enable it to exist in the first place. Personally, I want to apply the old maxim ‘think before you speak’ as much in this area as in my daily life.

this week on Google

"rebuilding a bicycle"

Alas, I get this one a lot. However, my rebuilding the bicycle entry is purely metaphorical. I'm certainly not what they're looking for - no bicycle instructions here, guys.

"can rabbits eat slugs"

Since I mention slugs and rabbits in the same entry, the Googler was led here. But frankly, no, they don't.

You need to get yourself a hedgehog, dude.

Related post: Er

private comments

I've had to remove my 'private comments' email as it's been grabbed by the spammers. Sorry to those of you who have prefered to use it in the past. It was a disposable address - it shall now be disposed of...

Firefox

Haven't felt great this week - have backdated a few entries rather than splurge in one entry. Couldn't get into my blog in Internet Explorer today so have entered via Firefox, which seems to make all the fonts look different. Interesting. Anyway.

Yesterday: medium -low, 4/10
Today: medium, 4-5/10

er...

If you've got a statistics tracker on your blog, you can see how people got to your page - this can be rather entertaining when it comes to what people type into Google. Twice someone has typed in 'your wife is a big hippo' and got directed to my entry of that title. But what really drove me to comment on it here was the discovery that somebody typed 'help am in desperate need of the loo' (!!)

Was this some poor soul at work unable to get to the facilities and desperately sending this desire into the internet ?! (Amusingly, they got directed to my blog - had I expressed the same need in the entry in question?)

Anyway, yes, I am procrastinating. I am unpacking and washing and unpacking and washing.

a title completely alludes me today

We've been having some Internet trouble of late. After Andy spending ages on the phone and then reinstalling everything, it seems to be all right at the moment. But if I mysteriously disappear, that will probably be why. Probably. I don't want to limit the reasons for any mysterious disappearance I may undertake... Forgive me - I'm a little random this evening.

Nothing much to report - and alas no profound mind blowing entry - much as I would like to treat you to one. It has been raining quite a lot. But it isn't now.

Yesterday a goldfinch visited our nyger seed feeder - that's a first for us. I've not seen any in our garden since that time I did the Garden Birdwatch. We are watching Springwatch - making a mental tick every time Simon King says 'cracking'...my favourite is 'cracking little bird!' but I don't think he's said that just yet. He's cooing over wildcats and ospreys at the moment, neither of which are little, and one of which isn't a bird. Our garden is quite an activity base at the moment - the benefits of a small garden mean you get more close-up views.

There's a great tit family which keep arriving with great fanfare in next door's tree (which overhangs our fence, so it's known simply as 'the tree'). I think they are the pair we've usually had visiting plus their offspring - very like the adults now except their very distinctive cheep-cheep-cheeping and a smudgy charcoal head instead of the adults' sharp black. I think the blue tits must have fledged and I missed it - there was a furore of activity earlier this week back and forth feeding the chicks (and some very vocal activity inside the box). But I've not noticed them today or yesterday - although I've not been looking out of the window so much. I hope they are all right; it's been so wet. Have a special soft spot after our rescue of one of the parents. Dunnocks aren't fazed by the wet though - one was taking a vigorous bath in a flooded patch of the garden path yesterday, in the rain - I suppose that's what you'd call taking a bath and a shower at the same time.

Still haven't heard from World Vision - sent a second email in case they didn't get the first. Rather frustrating - although I did find the section of their website where you can donate directly to their work in Darfur. I'd just like to have a reply, really, so I can be absolutely certain of the right direction for this. Have compiled first draft of anthology. Got somewhat frustrated (again) yesterday as was trying to find the perfect picture for the front cover - I had it in my mind but couldn't find it. Finally found it today...and it wasn't as good as I thought. I'll get there eventually.

My font option has disappeared and it doesn't seem to respond to my manual html today, although it should have. Mmmph.

**Update - ooh it's working now! And because it is, you won't have a clue what I'm talking about. Am I sensible enough simply to delete the previous sentence? Nah.

Wednesday:4/10, medium
Thursday: 4-5/10, medium
Friday:5/10, medium - low