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I took a few Internet-free days last week. It was great to get away from all that “noise.” As some have pointed out, I was getting a bit tired of some of the nonsense available on the web.
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Tweets about cats being sick and dishes waiting to be cleaned. Facebook status updates about fingers or feelings hurting. Blog posts about politics being a joke. Rings a bell?
As I was convincing myself of the righteousness of my grievances, I began to realize how lucky we were to live with that noise. I started to see the noise not as a annoyance, but as a blessing. Here is the rationale behind that conclusion.
The Library of Alexandria Was a Joke
I concede it. Tweets about cats being sick do not contribute to advancing the evolution of human kind. However, the possibility to tell the world about your cat’s sickness reveals something quite significant. It speaks volume about the times we live in: not an era of surprising human stupidity and irrelevance, but one of significant freedom of speech and creativity.
If you carefully consider the benefits, enduring the emptiness of some of your virtual interlocutors turns out to be a very small price to pay. It is so because with the sick cat comes an astonishing amount of great ideas, an extremely valuable level of human interactions and the materialization of fruitful virtual alliances.
In all the history of human kind, our era is by far the most innovative and culturally diversified. Of course, there was the Library of Alexandria., the Islamic Golden Age and the Renaissance. Yet nothing comes even close to what we live today.
Just enter a library today. First, you will see all the commercial stuff and feel that we’re a species on the verge of extinction. Then, you will discover Seth Godin, Malcom Gladwell, Yann Martel, Arundhati Roy, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Stephen Covey, etc. The same is true on the web.
Power to the People
The next time you wake up a bit cranky and want to rant about “The Noise”, you’ll need to remind yourself of another important element. The web has seriously democratized the business of creation. You no longer need a powerful music company to launch a successful career as a singer. YouTube and MySpace can help you out. If you’re a writer, you can resort to ebooks and blogs.
This democratization is good for pretty much everyone (including you… unless you work for a big music company and, instead of trying to adapt your business model, you keep on refusing to accept the new reality).
I know what you’re thinking. Giving power to the people can generate disastrous consequences. Giving power to the people means that you don’t only give it to geniuses. It also means that you give it to the not so smart people.
That’s a risk we should be willingly ready to take. In fact, that’s the risk any democracy in the world is taking at every election.
You accept the fact that giving a voice to the not so smart will allow you to hear that of the geniuses and of the many others who have something to contribute.
We’re still on a Learning Curve
During the few days I spent “unplugged”, I also came to realize that learning how to properly use new technology requires time. Consider cell phones for instance. Do you remember the first time you bought one? Were you looking at it every two seconds? Were you texting someone or trying to think of someone to call every minute? Be honest. I know you were. I can read minds.
It took a while for some to understand that a cell phone is a tool not a bottle of gin. We similarly have to give ourselves some time to adapt to new communication tools, such as Twitter, Facebook and the likes.
For all the crap that is being published out there, there are as many creative people sharing amazing ideas. Don’t stop listening because there is a lot of noise. Trust me, there are many voices out there that you don’t want to miss.
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Photos by notsogoodphotography and laurenv
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Comme tout cela est intéressant, tu remarqueras que mon moto tout en haut de ma page d’accueil de blogue est: Parce que le bruit est l’ennemi du message…..rings a bell comme tu dis?
C’est vrai qu’avec un pina colada, voire après le troisième pina colada les pieds dans l’eau on peut probablement, vraisemblablement apprécier le update Facebook du bruit de l’ongle d’orteil qui se casse gentiement sur une patte de chaise….ah que de poésie…;o) mais pour ma part j’ai réglé le problème autrement, après trop de poésie d’ongle d’orteil de l’un de mes faux amis, je les zappe….niet….beu-baille. La bibliothèque d’Alexandre se trouvera peut-être privée d’une insipide collaboration, mais je n’en serai pas témoin. Vive le libre arbitre.
Je suis bien d’accord. Le secret, c’est d’accepter le bruit sans nécessairement l’écouter et de se concentrer, plutôt, sur ce qui vaut vraiment la peine d’être entendu.
There are some really valuable ideas here. First off, I may have to try and go “unplugged” for a week and see how I cope. That sounds difficult! I believe that technology can make the world a better place. There are many people who say technology is taking away from personable communication and family values, but I feel that if people learn to adapt, really most anything can be used in a beneficial manner.
Hi Joe,
You should really try the unplugged experience. It’s really worth it. I agree that technology can and must be used in a beneficial manner. Some people say that there’s a dilemma: Twitter or no Twitter, Facebook or no Facebook, blogs or no blogs. Choosing between using or not using the technology is a false dilemma. The real problem is HOW we use it. And many of us haven’t been able to answer that question yet. Thanks.
I’m not sure that Seth Godin is any less commercial than the rest of the media that spell the end of civilization.
But, yes, I agree with you re: the endless vibrancy of our modern society — or, maybe more accurately, the endless potential of our modern society.
Because while you see the upside to “sick cat” tweets, I still find myself frustrated that you can hand somebody the Internet and the first thing they’ll think to broadcast is something so mundane. Or, that they’ll feel so compelled to broadcast around the clock that they’ll offset their valuable insights with arbitrary pointlessness. Or, that when faced with a world’s worth of knowledge, so few of us even know what we should be asking about, or why, because we’re so unprepared for the possibilities.
But almost all of us do it, simply because we can. And I can’t blame the car for the way people drive it.
I was sure someone would question my list of authors:) I’m equally frustrated by the irrelevant tweets, but I tend to be optimistic (others call me naive). I believe that in the long run, as we learn more intelligent and effective ways of using the internet, some of that noise will fade away. Thanks Justin for your initial post and comments.