Posts Tagged ‘Digital realm’
Surrendering The Final Word
I can screw up. A lot. I’ve said and done things I’m not proud of. I’ve got regrets. And I’ve had to hear and reflect on some harsh truths in my time.
It’s so easy for me, as a writer who tries to be honest, and who writes material to encourage and help others grow, to give the impression you have all the answers.
But many of us, whether we’re writers or not, love to the have the final word. And we’ll keep on responding in discussions – online and offline – just to make sure we do.
Which, as we all know deep down, is not a healthy approach to life.
Experience has convinced me there’s a better way. Surrender.
Read MoreWhy Writing Always Exposes The Truth
In the age of social media we allegedly bare more of ourselves than ever before. The digital realm has allegedly stripped us bare, naked. Exposed like someone standing on the street stark naked. And yet, whilst it’s true we share more of ourselves on line than ever before, I would argue we are still as protective of our true selves as we always have been.
It’s argued that our digital self, the self we portray online, on our Facebook and Twitter profiles, is an idealised reflection of our conscious self. But it goes deeper than that.
As Peter Rollins argues, our conscious self is often an idealised reflection of who we truly are. And many of us can begin to think that’s our true selves.
But it’s not.
It’s a reflection of who we want people to think we are.
Read MoreKnight Rider, Apple Watch & The Tower of Babel
In the 1980’s there was a show called Knight Rider. It was incredibly cool. And the big star of this show – and due respect to David Hasslehoff here – was the car, KITT. A self-aware supercomputer in a groovy black trans-am. And a watch which the car’s owner, Michael Knight, could talk to the car on.
Last week Apple announced the launch of the Apple Watch. A watch we will be able to talk to and command, but which will also receive and send text messages, and connect online. Technology is advancing at a rapid rate.
It’s amazing to think the first space aircraft which went to the moon were powered by as little electricity as it takes to run a kettle. The average iPhone is a million times faster than the first home computer.
Social media is already making the world a far smaller, and quicker place, changing the way we live. The next big advancement is likely to be the pursuit of artificial intelligence and research into how transfer human consciousness onto a supercomputer. A technology which may be as little as 20 years away.
But many say technology is destroying us. They say we need to stop the advancement of technology, scale back, and go back to how things ‘used to be’. According to them technology is the cause of many of the problems in our world, and ultimately damages us. They say we need to limit and control it, stop advancing.
However, this is to fundamentally misunderstand both technology and humanity.
To understand this issue further, we need to go back in time.
To the brick, and the tower of Babel.
Read MoreWhy Steve Jobs never asked before Creating (#MythOfNormal)
(Picture: Segagman via Creative Commons) Steve Jobs and I. We never met, I never even interacted with him. He never consulted me on his creative work – the imac, ipad, ipod and iphone. And we’re lucky he didn’t. Jobs imagination and vision transformed electronics, and in many ways shaped a generation. He was someone who…
Read MoreWhy we are Mysteries Within Mysteries
Source: pinwords.com via James on Pinterest I was recently making a dent in my sofa after doing some cleaning and tidying. I felt I’d earned it. I let my body go like a sail with air through it, and just relaxed. I was tempted to turn the radio or TV on. But for some reason…
Read MoreWhy Being a Friend takes more than a Click (Five Minute Friday)
For the last five weeks I’ve participated in Lisa-Jo Baker’s “Five-Minute Friday”. The concept is simply writing for 5 minutes, straight from the heart, on a given subject – and then sharing it. No edits, no marinading or reflecting – just write and share. If you’re a writer or blogger of any kind, I’d definitely…
Read MoreThis is my truth
Today’s post is one of the most honest I have ever written. I wrote it as a stream of consciousness, straight from my heart. I let out what I was really thinking without the fear and boundaries I so often put up, or are afraid to go beyond. Which is really what the post is…
Read MoreSocial Media: Digital Extending the Physical
Last time we discussed how the profile we present in the digital space can be merely a representation of the social self we display in the physical realm. This leads into a bigger, wider question though. Are all the interactions and spaces in the digital realm merely an extension of what happens in the physical…
Read MoreSocial media & the social self
We all have a social self. A self the world sees, the part of us that we like everyone to know, the best parts of us. The words we use to interact with those around us, the image we present to the world. The social self is merely an image projected by us, which we…
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