Dystopia 2019.

Cave Giants, Why I Didn’t Answer Your Email, and How the Movie ‘Jaws’ Could Solve a 1974 Cold Case Murder.

This is the second installment of a new monthly series where I share an eclectic assortment of articles and essays I discovered the previous month — all worthy of your time.

This month’s selection features eight essays covering such subjects as Facebook stealing a page out of the NSA’s spy book, the Golden Age of television, and how clutter and depression go hand in hand.

So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Continue reading HERE.

 

Mark Zucker-bird.

Amusing ourselves into addiction precedes amusing ourselves to death.

When Neil Postman set out to pen what would be his magnum opus regarding the medium of television, he had no idea that the internet was on the horizon.

Reading Amusing Ourselves to Death several years ago, I couldn’t help but wonder how Postman would have responded to the trappings of our current technology (including the internet and social media). Surely, if he were alive today, readers would be expecting a sequel to that book.

It’s in this vein that I wanted to share the following five-minute video clip with you about how excessive smartphone usage is transforming our minds. This video is not only timely, eye-opening, and convicting, it is downright troubling. I encourage you take five minutes out of your busy day and watch this video with an open mind.

In addition to the internal brain-altering side effects that the above video illustrates, if you have just 27 more minutes, I challenge you to watch the following terrifying video about the external dangers our smartphones present as we find ourselves living in the Brave New World that our nation’s forefathers tried to prevent.*

* For those people out there, or at least that one person (you know who you are) who is/are incapable of understanding that someone can critique the overuse or misuse of certain tools or technologies without being completely against the existence of said tools or technologies, I request you refrain from erecting any further straw man arguments, namely, claiming that if I criticize a negative effect of a tool/technology, then it must mean I’m completely against that tool/technology.

Did you know, I can oppose guns being used in the commission of a crime, and still support the 2nd Amendment? Did you know, I can be opposed to people driving their cars recklessly, causing death and injury to other motorists, but still believe motor vehicles are a great tool?

And I can do all that while simultaneously carrying my gun and driving my car, and this does not make me a hypocrite.

See how this works?

For everyone else, please watch these sobering videos in the spirit they’re intended, and I pray they will be edifying to you. 

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Bonus video:

And not reading this blog.

Quotes: You should never have to justify your rights.

Hello?

Fully empty.

But with countless social media “friends” and “followers.”

Gym club.

Social media is inundated.

The death of literature.

Murdered by social media.

Human interaction and the internet summed up succinctly.

Feed it.

Some of you need to heed this sign.

“Each minute wounds. The last kills.”

Well that’s awfully embarrassing.

Double standard.

Facebook futility.

Quotes: Social media is a necessary evil for writers.

“As a writer, [social media is] actually your best friend. Because it’s how you make connections without having to leave your house. It’s a win win situation. Sell more books, set yourself up for success, never have to talk to anyone.”

– Shaelin Bishop

 

Source

Reflection.

A virtual carbon copy.