Your Attention Please

i used to blog frequently. until twitter came along. now, i micro-blog. it is too easy. and i don’t have to spend time to think.

the world is getting faster and more concise with each passing day, hour and minute. Instant gratification is not merely relished, it’s demanded. Writing this a few years ago would have taken up all my concentration. Today, my mind somersaults through a plethora of activities, a dozen times a minute as i ‘Alt-Tab’ my way through the open windows before i manage to complete one sentence. my attention span has been reduced to that of a gnat. Does all this context switching affect my writing? maybe. for better or worse? can’t say. i know for a fact that my writing is certainly different when i write the old-fashioned way, than when i type.

i feel restless if i don’t click on the ‘You have a new mail’ alert, the moment it pops up. or if the hourglass pointer shows up for more than a few seconds. my irritation is demonstrated as violently shake the mouse as if doing that would somehow cause it to go away. one word: ADD.

the disorder seems contagious. ppl are always on the edge and are loosing it at the drop of a hat. they can’t sit still for more than a few minutes…unless they’re watching TV, in case of which, they can stare at it for hours without moving a muscle (well, except the thumb to switch channels). which brings us to another important observation: ppl (including me) are becoming lazier. most would choose activities like sleeping, watching TV and thinking in decreasing order of priority, given a choice. working out doesn’t even make the list anymore. reading books? forget it… takes too much time and efforts. and who reads books anyways? kindle? sure, just can’t seem to focus on reading one, when the news feeds are updated every other minute. i gotta stay updated on the latest celebrity gossip, you know? it’s pretty popular at the water cooler.

everyone always has had a choice. except, now the choice has gone from choosing between reading one or other to choosing whether to read or zone out. the scary part is, in most of the cases today, it’s the latter that gets chosen.

are we all becoming so poor that we can’t even pay attention?

or is it the other way round? in today’s attention economy, my attention span became one of the most coveted commodity as everyone tried really hard to get my attention. pretty soon, they were all shouting at the top of their lungs clamoring to get my attention. initially, i ignored them. over time, i turned deaf.

next on the list is finding some techniques to combat the impulses my brain so that i can …hey, it’s Friday! wonder what the weather is like over the weekend.

Save The Turtles

A few days ago, i got an email from one of my friends. it went something like this:

...just written to Ratan Tata asking him not to go ahead with building a port in Dhamra, Orissa, dangerously close to one of the world's largest sea turtle nesting grounds for the Olive Ridley Sea Turtles ... can't bring about that change alone. I need help from lots of people ...
Thanks a million ...

with a link to the site (that you can go to by clicking on the title).

so, if you want to feel proud, you can go ahead and enter your name and email (they say it won't be spammed) and if everything goes as planned, we can hope that all will be well with the world (the turtles', at least).

What you get out of it? Well, you can sleep sound, thinking that you have done your bit for the environment and carry on living your lives as usual.

OR, if that got you started, you could join Greenpeace and do more than your share for the environment.

Not that those are the only choices. You could get some tips from here while you are at it.

That's about it.
(For starters, here is a simple green tip from yours truly: if you carry a kerchief with you for wiping your hands and runny noses, you could save that paper towel or that electricity for the blow dryer.)

Waiting for Godot

Of the time i have been allocated on this planet, most is spent waiting.

Here is a typical day:

• waiting for the car to warm up
  
• waiting for traffic signals
• waiting in traffic
  
• waiting for public transport
• waiting for the public transport to reach destination
• waiting for the elevators
• waiting for the machine to boot
  
• waiting for reply to emails
• waiting for programs to build & compile
• waiting for webpages to load
  
• waiting for the other party to answer the phone
  
• waiting for the microwave to warm up food
• waiting for my turn in the queue at the shop counter
  
• waiting for the coffee machine to brew
• waiting for the time to go back home
  
• waiting for a gap in vehicles to cross the road
• waiting for someone to open the fron door
  
• waiting for the tap to dispense hot water
• waiting for food to cook
• waiting for hot food to cool down before storing it in the refrigerator
  
• waiting for time to pass after dinner so that i can sleep
• waiting for Lord Hypnos to bless me
• ...

and so it goes (the time, i mean).

If i take a wider view, there are other, err ... events, for lack of a better word (my vocab sux), that i am waiting for.

• waiting for the paycheck
• waiting for the project to end
• waiting for interview calls
• waiting for a good job offer
  
• waiting for new project to begin
• waiting for some windfall to get latest gadgets
  

Even wider view,

• waiting for 'someone special'
• waiting for a life i'll spend doing things my way
• waiting for the bank balance to get to 'comfortable' levels
  
• waiting for a peaceful easy life
• ...

While i have read all kinds of advice on 'not waiting for things to change and enjoying life in the present' and all that jazz, waiting is all that prevails.

I don't mind waiting; just that realising the the futility of it all in the ultimate certainity makes me feel even more exasperated.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock...

Imagine...

and this is just the begining; the posibilities are endless ...