In my Media & Society class we’ve been watching this PBS documentary called Digital Nation. It’s sort of really upsetting on one hand that we have all this technology and those of us that grew up with this technology (and those who have grown up without knowing of a world without this technology) are so attached and adapted to constantly being on our phones, laptops, tablets, and touch-screen everything. I mean, I already knew all this in the back of my head. Some of us claim to be “information sponges” where we google ANYTHING for ANY REASON at ANY TIME. To be honest though, I know my retention skills are incredibly lacking. Even when I have the utmost interest in a subject, take a class on it, immerse myself in the material, and do well in the course, I don’t remember most of it in a year. It’s gotta be that I’m so distracted. And I know I’m distracted! So is everybody else!

It’s something we all know, that we’re looking at screens the majority of our time now. There are students (at M.I.T.!) that actually think multi-tasking is a thing we’re good at. I know for a fact I’m not. I accept it. I need to focus. That’s why when I’m reading something online for a class at home, I read it out loud. When I’m studying for an exam, I shut my phone off. There’s absolutely no way that checking my facebook, email, twitter, text messages, and tumblr is NOT distracting me. It’s actually a fix. The last four days I’ve been away from my computer more than I have in the last month without classes because I don’t carry my laptop to campus. I still end up at the computer lab or my org’s office during my break periods, but when I get home at the end of the day is when I catch up on everything I’ve missed for the day or have yet to comment on/respond to/message/blog about/etc.

“Virtually all multi-taskers think that they are brilliant at multi-tasking. And one of the big discoveries is, ‘You know what? You’re really lousy at it’ It turns out, multi-taskers are terrible at every aspect of multi-tasking.”

I know I’m a terrible multi-tasker. I know my brain functions slower with a lower retention rate for information, probably because I don’t need to remember as much information when google exists. But I really do see it as a problem. For me anyway. Not gonna tell everyone they have a technology/google problem. I know I do though. ‘Cause I’m starting to lose the whole purpose of this ~education~ thing when I put in more time on the internet for my own stupid curiosities than I put in for the classes I’m taking. 

Anyway, the video above has nothing to do with anything else I just wrote really. I shoveled snow this morning so I looked up some tips (none of which were necessary. I live in a row home in north Philly, I wasn’t clearing a mountain or anything.) While looking for tips and information for no good reason, I learned how to avoid a heart attack while shoveling snow if I have a heart condition, and found this lovely poem by Billy Collins: “Shoveling Snow with Buddha.”

I need to stop writing in paragraphs.