Opinion
Choosing to read in the new TV age
In the beginning there was the newspaper. It decided what was important, presented it in an accessible manner, and send you the issue. Then came TV, it did the same, but stripped the need to pay attention from what it was sending you. You could just sit and watch without paying attention or even understand what was on your screen.
TV still lives, but there is now the web as well. It started off as something you have to engage with. You clicked on links consciously, you read what was on the screen, and you wrote to people on forums and over email. Then came the video era of the web. There still was some conscious decision-making involved - you chose the videos you watched and the videos you wanted to make.
In time however, the web too entered its TV era. Instead of you choosing what to watch, the screen started deciding for you. You do still scroll, but you do not choose what happens when you scroll. You just sit and watch without paying attention or even understand what is on your screen.
Despite foretellings about the internet will make TV - and the way of life it creates - obsolete, the internet has actually turned into TV. This works to the advantage of those who are products of TV - people who worked in TV and people who watch TV. But to those who long for the rustle of paper in their hands, it is a bit of a loss.
I was going through my browser history the other day. I scrolled through weeks worth of history and couldn't find a single old fashioned text-based web page. It was all video.
This is why I am writing - actually writing - to you. It's a choice being made in hopes that you too would make a choice.
Vimoh
Links
Death of the follower
This is a few months old. A talk by the CEO of Patreon on how the creator economy has changed and how the weight of the follow button has been diluted due to algorithmic considerations. It starts out with a bit of history, so if tou just want to get to the meat of it, watch from 18 minutes onwards.
youtube.com
If you are tired, you are fired!
If this report is to be believed, a Noida-based company surveyed its employees to see if they were stressed. Then it fired those who were stressed. I am sure none of them are stressed anymore. I am still working on believing this. What do you think? Does the brazen shamelessness of corporate culture stress you out? If yes, you're fired!
businesstoday.in
Perhaps enlightenment shouldn't be permanent
As someone who talks a lot about religion, I keep hearing from people who speak of attaining enlightenment. They speak of it as a destination - something to reach and rest. Or a race - something to win and then nothing can take the trophy away from you. But I was listening to Shahid Kapoor speak of finding balance in life and I realised that perhaps conversations about enlightenment can be framed in a similar way. Balance, said he, is not a destination. It's something you have to practice daily. I was wondering if the same can be said about all "enlightened" figures. And if it can't, perhaps it should be. We need to encourage people to stop speaking of enlightenment as something that gets attained permanently. Maybe your favourite spiritual hero attained enlightenment. But did he stay there? Is it even possible to stay there?
youtube.com