Life In The Slow Lane

 I had something like this in mind - although I didn't know it at the time - when I asked what this blog is about. But I see it now, after seeing this. I looked at that picture and I wondered why three of these four people would spend an evening engrossed by their computers instead of interacting in some way. Then it dawned on me: television. This is what TV watchers do. Friends sit next to each other and are zombified by the box.



 I don't have a TV. I am from another century. I have all the wrong ideas. If I go visit someone and they turn on the TV, I watch politely for a little while, then leave. This is confusing for some people, as they think camaraderie revolves around shared experience of whatever drivel happens to be on. This is the ritual, and it's become so commonplace that hardly anyone thinks twice about it. It's become so commonplace that people are developing an even more alienated form of socialising. It's a bit like working from a cafe: they're in a convivial environment, but not interacting. This will be confusing in places where cafes have been used mainly for socialising rather than by multitudes of cyber-workers. This is the scenario that came to mind when I looked at that photograph. All it needs is a name. I'll call it cyber-wonking for now. Wonk is phonetically similar to work, and denotes an excessive attention.



 I had another bit of insight when I came back here and saw my photo of the broken branch and collapsing garden wall. I could be cyber-wonking, but instead, I'm paying attention to pokey details of the physical environment. I could be doing all manner of high-tech stuff, but instead, I'm inspecting somebody's garden wall and looking for detritus on the foothpath. Do you ever walk around and look at the stuff on the pavement? Artists get paid to do that sort of thing. Do a one-meter transect of the sidewalk, photograph and catalogue everything that's visible. Instead of being mentally engrossed in surfing and building the cyber-world, I'm engrossed in the most primitive of things, the low-tech equivalent of cyber-surfing: making my way around the neighbourhood. It was a bit of a shock to switch from thinking about complete absorption in the computer screen to seeing the broken branch. Even though both are on my computer screen.



 So yeah, that's why my blog is about. The ironies of cyber-wonking about life in the slow lane. Or something like it.


 Now I have to go to the library, on my bike. Before it starts to rain.