BOREDOM
One of the changes in technology is something that I read about today, January 4, in an opinion piece in the New York Times by Chris Hayes, who has a daily show on MSNBC. In it he comments on the degree to which technology has enhanced the way we avoid boredom, having nothing to do or to respond to, by becoming an attention providing culture through the all the new ways of communicating that demand our attention which puts us in a constant state of stimulation.
But it seems to me that this stimulation is almost an addiction. I feel as if addiction happens when stimulation is not never enough and you drop one thing and search for another that is more stimulating only to find that isn’t enough and something else is more stimulating. Food can do that, sports can do that, politics can do that. Chris Hayes argues that Donald Trump could have been elected simply because he knew how to get attention and how to maintain attention through doing and saying ever more outrageous things. Simply by maintaining attention he could have attracted enough votes by people who were stimulated by his antics to win. Lying could be a more affective way of getting attention than telling the truth, scaring people more effective than reassuring them.
But eventually, I would think, as with every addiction, more stimulation will no longer work and lethargy and depression will set in. Boredom will set in. To escape we will search for ever new stimulation. Chris Hayes way out of this endless search for attention and stimulation is to every day take a long walk which calms his mind and lets him accept being fully alive without stimulation.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 