“Thoughts about the degree to which I’m a slave or lowly employee of the system I’ve created: cigarettes smoke me, food eats me, alcohol drinks me, house swallows me, car drives me, etc.”
– Jim Harrison, Just Before Dark
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“An uncomfortable question arises, could we humans be in the same boat as those hapless bees? Have we too been duped by caffeinated plants, not only to do their bidding but to act against our interests in the process? Who’s getting the best of our relationship with the caffeine producing plants?”
– Michael Pollan, Caffeine
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Jim Harrison was writing before social media, even before the internet.
Imagine if we added “the social media that posts me“ to his list, then he would really be in trouble.
But isn’t that most of us, most of the time?
One big FOMO.
We let our technology rule us because it connects us to the rest of the world.
If we don’t check, or post, then we fall behind.
But staying ahead online is like trying to chase a river.
What are you competing against? The river? The individual water molecules? The Pooh stick floating in the current?
There are simply too many people to consider online.
But worse, the algorithm and the AI will always be out there, with a carrot dangling in front of our noses.
I am happy to be manipulated by the coffee plant.
It’s a relationship between me and the few dozen coffee beans I consume daily.
But social media? I am manipulated by a virtual plant that has choked the planet.
A weed.
An invasive species.
A system that I cannot control or fully comprehend.
Technology should work for me rather than I work for technology.
How did I become its slave?
I should be the one snapping my fingers, demanding attention and service.
How do we be more like Odysseus when we venture online?
How do we tie ourselves to the mast and plug our ears against the siren’s call?
This blog passes through no social media.
It’s just me posting on my own domain, a tiny island that I control.
I can hear the river rushing by.
I am happy to turn my back and attend to my own business.
Now, what did I do with my pen…?
Conversations With Quotations 