Information overload

[Velvet-Tongue]

With the internet, facebook, *******, chat, cellphones, email, etc etc people are too connected now. You can't ever get lost anymore. If you live in the internet culture people know everything about you, where you are, what your thoughts are and who you want to become.

When I lived in Florida we were hit with horrible hurricanes that left my area without power for more then a week. After the initial anxiety of losing contact with most people it actually started to feel -really- good to be isolated and free of constant interaction. I'd walk to friend's houses, cook outside, make love to my then girlfriend when we were together and then at night? Light some candles and read. Life got simple, easy to understand and 10 times less stressful. Part of me feels thats how humans really need to live. In a state of controlled, willing isolation were visitations and interactions could be decided freely by the individual. I suppose one could do that now but I personally feel chained. I love the internet but god, does it sure allow the darkest part of the human being to emerge and thrive freely. There is no knowledge without regret and it feels that we are sometimes getting too much information too easily. Information overload is creating a whole new breed of people that know about everything but know little about themselves and what is important in life.

Just my two-cents and change. What are your thoughts BB?

[Bikerpunk]

That's why I paint, bake bread, and play a non-electronic instrument (drums)

[Mr Karl]

the information on the internet is interesting and entertaining and good for shopping, but other than that it's not particularily useful, except for creating this new breed of people you referred to...............

[Lady Alias]

If you don't want people to know everything about you, where you are, what your thoughts are and who you want to become then you don't post it.

Information overload is creating a whole new breed of people that know about everything but know little about themselves and what is important in life.

What's important in life is relative to the individual. To assume what you think is important is the same for others is egotistical.

And I don't see why you can only know a lot about other things and not yourself.

[helcyon]

hmmm... perhaps VT?

[OrganizedKhaos]

I can totally fuckin relate VT!!! I went from KY growing up in the Appalachian mountains, where there's NO ONE for miles, to living in Fort Myers, FL where there were camera's everywhere, and I felt REAL strange having every moment (practically that I went out of the house.... ) was being taped.

Now that I'm back here in KY,...to give you an idea of how secluded I am... the closest Wal-Mart is thirty mins away...and the closest mall is at least an hr and a half away.
When I got back to KY...I went a few months with no TV, no phone....and I'm basically a shut in now... other than going aimlessly into the Appalachians as I did once upon a time....

I'm just now getting back online again...

I get a bit smothered by the info overload... but at the same time, I feel like I'm dying when I'm cut off from everything.

I'd like to find a healthy medium... but with the way the world is changing, things arent ever going to go back to the way I remember it to be... as a child, before cell phones and internet and security cameras EVERYWHERE ever invaded my world... (like a mother's womb, a child often craves the comfort once felt within... but once things change, and the child is born, it can never return... even though for the rest of his or her life, can be spent trying to recapture a comfort once experienced ....now lost)

I NEED SOLACE,YET I NEED THE COLD COMFORT OF THE INTERNET....AND ITS VAST DISPOSAL OF KNOWLEDGE FOR ME TO ABSORB!!!

I remember how my grandparents and other ppl from the older generations were always constantly trying to keep the 'world from turning' to keep the old ways and traditions in tact... and shun the new ways that they found threatening to their secure notions of life as they knew it.

I watched alone as their futile battle waged on... I found myself secretly welcoming the new tomorrow.... and not knowing WHY they wanted time to stop.... and return to the safer 'yesterday'.

Since I've been back to Ky, I've savoured every bit of silence and solace I can squander. But... too much silence is poison... (everything in moderation is wisdom)

I get it now, (what the older generation used to strive for) I can see how humanity is both creating its answers and its problems..... its heaven and its hell... its salvation and demise.

I dont know where we as a society are actually going, or what consequences will unfold...
But the earth is changing, and continues to revolve and evolve....regardless.

( Ever thought about this? you know how until the last 100 or so yrs, where in ***time*** medical practices have advanced... ? Well, until then, as a people... and nature, it was only the strongest and the fittest survived.... right? Think about how that affected the gene pool..........

Now .... think about how many people's LIVES are SAVED due to the scientific advances, THAT WOULDNT BE HERE UNLESS SCIENCE HAD SAVED THEM...?

Ask yourself.... Havent those same people PROCREATED? Is it possible that the gene pool is polluted?
Who knows what kind of MONSTER is lurking in the mystery of tomorrow due to our own devices?... BTW .... My husband, myself, and both kids are still here due to medical intervention.... )
What price are we paying .... to demystify the world?

[Velvet-Tongue]

Exactly OrganizedKhaos,

Humanity as a whole has evolved and grown up in relative isolation since our inception as a species. Sure we had large cities, civilizations and more but society still grew up around a smaller unit of family, the tribe, the self.

We're the first generation to have such intense freedom of information and communication. Its effects on humanitys psyche is untested and unknown. All sorts of things are happening to the minds of people that we have no name for since no one in the past has ever experieced it.

[Bikerpunk]

Well, in a few years when we run out of oil, we'll be back to having everyone struggle to find food, all modern conveniences gone.

[OrganizedKhaos]

Exactly OrganizedKhaos,

Humanity as a whole has evolved and grown up in relative isolation since our inception as a species. Sure we had large cities, civilizations and more but society still grew up around a smaller unit of family, the tribe, the self.

We're the first generation to have such intense freedom of information and communication. Its effects on humanitys psyche is untested and unknown. All sorts of things are happening to the minds of people that we have no name for since no one in the past has ever experieced it.

We live in a society that throws the grandparents away, whether nursing home or in a sense... they represent a time long gone, and they have nothing relative say to the time of present.

Usually both parents work, and the kids raise themselves. The ppl raising today's society are known as 'caregivers'. Is it possible for someone else to love some else's kids AS MUCH AS A MOTHER... not to mention they're giving care to a big number of kids.

What effect will this have on the future?

More and more people in our age bracket (and even more so the generations coming up) are putting off child bearing until later in life, OR deciding to have NONE all together.

Back in the day, women have had more children to help with the farm.... now, if someone has 3 kids, they stand out in society as DARING! And any more kids than that... people judge them as crazy.
One reason, the more kids a couple has, the more expensive they'll be.
whereas back in the day, the more kids usually meant more money to be gained.

Without a doubt, we have the most unique circumstances to be raised amongst... in all of known history. The inter-net of families has been replaced with the internet ... the ability to connect with others of like-mindedness... that has in essence replaced (or at least partially replaced) the familial bonds.

And the older generations, feel elevated in pride that they're better because they recognize the 'tainting' of the younger generations.
making the divide larger, and its constantly growing.

[Morning Glory]

I've talked a lot before about how in some other societies family raising was something that was done by the society as a whole, but today in ours it's supposed to be something that is like almost a secret, and not to be done out in the open, let alone entrusted to anyone else. and really you can't trust anyone else, even if you wanted to. I think the two are defiantly connected.

one thing is that in the old days people died a lot. giving birth was one of the leading causes of death, both for children and for women. another difference- today we call this an advantage that so many people are surviving.

but the thing is, back then you had to have a lot of kids, because you knew that most of them wouldn't make it, and like you said, you had to have them young, because you wouldn't last very long either.

and when it came to non-automated labor you had to have a lot of people around to work. that means kids. especially in subsistence farming. we also see that as a good thing, increasing technology, decreasing labor. but it strikes me as a sad thing that we are only one or two generations of people in the history of humanity that is incapable of providing for their own means of survival. I don't know about you, but that doesn't give me a lot of hope for the future.

today we also face Malthus's Dilema. with increased food and life expectancy population increased with requires increased food to sustain life expectancy. but they don't increase at an equal rate, the population keeps increasing and the food decreases. the inevitable conclusion is that population decreases till it is consistent with food production. that means a lot of people dying, which we have previously determined to be a bad thing and we are trying to overcome- which just continues the problem and the same cycle. another thing that is not too pretty to look forward to.

[Morning Glory]

it's crazy to think about what people did for fun 150 years ago. I have a house full of shit that has no other purpose than to entertain me, and I'm bored out of my mind. I can't even imagine saying "hey, it's 7:30 (actually I have no idea what time it is, watches haven't been invented yet) and I can't see shit!" what are you supposed to do?

It also really blows my mind.. maybe not so much now, but not too long ago, ten fifteen years there were people around that could remember a time when there were no cars and no airplanes.

just how much things have changed so fast... people don't really think about it. but when you stop to let it catch up, it really hits you.

[Velvet-Tongue]

it's crazy to think about what people did for fun 150 years ago. I have a house full of shit that has no other purpose than to entertain me, and I'm bored out of my mind. I can't even imagine saying "hey, it's 7:30 (actually I have no idea what time it is, watches haven't been invented yet) and I can't see shit!" what are you supposed to do?

It also really blows my mind.. maybe not so much now, but not too long ago, ten fifteen years there were people around that could remember a time when there were no cars and no airplanes.

just how much things have changed so fast... people don't really think about it. but when you stop to let it catch up, it really hits you.

Thats a really good point. Now a days I need to always be doing something. When im at college I got the tv on, computer going, maybe some music in the background and I'm talking to friends online. So much is happening at once and we still end up getting bored.

With the whole Hurricane thing it took awhile for the "I need to constantly be engaged" mindframe to dwindle and then my entire life cycle atered too.

I'd wake up early to take advantage of the sun. Walk to meet friends then explore the storm-torn enviroment. We'd all help eachother clean and clear the houses of debris. Then we'd all find food and combine it together, start a fire with fence planks and cook. Then at night I'd light candles, pray and read.

Life got real tribal and simple real quick and I started to really enjoy it lol.

[Velvet-Tongue]

What you said above is also true and scary. We're one of the first genrations in our part of the world to have no real ability to survive outside of this system. If you go back just one generation my mother's family were all farmers. They knew how to plant and grow crops, care for animals, milk cows, sew/make their own clothes etc. They were self reliant and what they could not do their village was always there to help. Was life perfect? No, life was hard and you died 20 years earlier then you do now and babies/mothers died all the time. Still, if things got bad they were going to live.

If things go bad now complete and total fucking chaos ensues. When the blackouts hit parts of the country riots occured and people died. Having no power drove people nuts. Groupthink set in and the whole "Well no one can catch us now" hits and people become savages.

If we lost the ability to move crops then road warrior esque realities of bandits and gangs roving around killing eachother to secure food and water would become a reality. That'd last till all those people (who also have no idea how to provide for themselves outside of normal society) run out of food and starve to death too. Who'd be left? The Amish, The Menonites, the Rural Farmers, Herders, Ranchers etc. We're so close to a complete breakdown of society as we know it its amazing.

/babbles and zones out daydreaming.

[Mr Karl]

yeah, the good old days........................miss the ol' time religion do ya?

[OrganizedKhaos]

VT.....The only people who'd be left are the ones who cant 'survive' in *our* inter-workings of life as WE know it...(in this present sense, that is...)

I'm just going to let some ppl in on something, to those who care to read it anyway...
I had a period of misfortune ...of sorts.... (someways it was incredible fortune) Me and my husband lived without electricity and water for 8 1/2 mths. We moved onto this property in the middle of no where... and basically CAMPED for that time period. Life was so much simpler ...tougher no doubt... but it was a basic simple that felt incredible.
Every task, from day light to dark, had a purpose... and it translated into syllables of survival...
I too, found it easy to pray (connect clearly to spirituality, in whatever way ya wanna put it) I felt spent... but whole.
Suddenly the things I used to take for granted, like, flicking the light switch, and having the room illuminated...INSTANTLY became a luxury... I wondered, how mankind could advance to this point of technology, and something so awesome, wasnt regarded by the masses on a daily basis to be the miracle it truly is...

And WITHOUT the light bulb luxury... I found that I suddenly didnt need a clock to tell me when to get up, and when to go to bed... my body quickly synchronized rhythm with the rising and falling of the sun.

Even though sometimes the silence was maddening,... it drove me to create... My passion was louder than ever, and needed ways to get out. I wrote, read, painted, walked thru nature... and in those moments, I found that I was with ***me*** rather than MEdia. {{insert Shelter Me ~ Project 86}}
I'd go to sleep at night listening to the metronomic tick of the battery powered clock. I'd write songs in my head, or fit songs I already knew... to the insistent ticking.

I found that when I'd go back to 'civilization' (like once a month) that TV... seemed so INTERESTING (it didnt matter what was on, I was mesmerized) yet... it was MORE so OBVIOUS how FAKE it was. People couldnt bullshit me like they once could... (you know how ppl do, even if they arent outright lying, how they avoid connection reinforcing their walls by deflecting) I'd been isolated with the truth and emotions that were raw and honest...Leaving the reactions from the people I'd encounter totally easy to detect.

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My paternal grandfather built his brick home with his bare hands, as well as his barn... both still stand today. He died when my dad was 13. They had a large farm. My paternal grandmother never remarried. She started watching other ppl's kids in the day, and made quilts to support the family. She did very well for herself, financially.
She had several gardens, and raised cattle, goats, geese, chickens...etc . She'd sell livestock for money. She canned, everything you can think of, and stocked coal in the basement and cut wood for heating the house in the winter. She was half Sioux indian... She was HARDCORE!!! She raised a farm every yr up until she died (I've seen her in her 60's pack a 50lb bag of 'feed' from the trunk of her car all the way to the barn on her shoulder!!!)

My maternal grandparents always had a garden, and 'Mamaw' made quilts to sell supporting the family. She did this until she was in her early 80's.

My mom used to work with my paternal grandmother 'Granny' in her quilting shop supplementing Dad's coal miner income.

Mom and Dad still raise a garden every year, eventually....she went back to school and became an RN. Dad's still a coal miner.

Me? I failed HOME EC, (the sewing semester) BUT I can grow just about anything... I've not tried a full garden, but so far, I can grow anything ... kinda like cooking, I just need the directions...lol

(in the event of a crisis, even though I *theoretically* COULD grow a garden, I'd have to work in it several times a week (if not daily), and would have to give it time to mature, and harvest its yield before it would do me any good. I'd starve to death before harvest time)
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I agree that there would be chaos if our way of living as we know it were to be disrupted..

You made an interesting point about the gangs and stuff... I've got a theory/observation about why gangs exist ... and essentially, they're in crisis.
They need each other to an extent. They find it necessary for survival.

(in the cities, they have gangs, here we have families... if ya mess with one of 'em ...yer takin' on all of 'em....essentially, its the same thing, and just as dangerous)
Back in the day, there were wars and animals to hunt. People who are born with a certain innate warrior spirit, that dont join the ranks of the army as we know it... have a drive within that isnt exhausted....

These people have had war/kill to survive DRIVE in their blood lines for centuries... we are in the first generation to be governed by LAW that doesnt necessarily reflect an oath to a God, but rather to serve HUMANITY as a whole. The LAW is attempting to serve where 'religion' has failed... in attempt to 'CIVILIZE' ...or rather make coexisting CIVIL...amongst people.
LAW is a sterile form of religion....with HUMANITY to be served as GOD.... where the current HELL is known as JAIL. Its no longer a GOD that delivers the judgment, but rather a jury of our peers. (ppl representing the WHOLE of HUMANITY)

Gangs erupt in various forms to challenge where the LAW has failed, and their religion is the code of the street...they take up positions as both GOD, DEMANDING persons to serve their mandate, or else they reveal 'universal' ROLE of the DEVIL to enforce consequence.

The same barriers are acknowledged in thousands of sect's and forms, they're only separated by TECHNICALITIES. (From religion to state, from the cradle to the grave)

My question to all humanity is, how can everyone be right, ...... and how can everybody be SO wrong too? ***the key within is to read between the lines***

But really, thats another topic altogether.

[helcyon]

VT...
...
...
...

hehe I sometimes abbreviate peoples' screen names OK but if you are going to type that much you might as well go all out and spell out the name in full

[OrganizedKhaos]

Good point... but dont you think my messages are long enough.... and I should cut corners whenever possible?....lol

You didnt even read it did you?
My stuff always looks longer than they really are the way I break them up for easy internet reading. Its not like you actually use your finger, or an index card ... to assist reading as you would if you were reading a book.

[helcyon]

^^^ still reading... gimmee a few days

[Mr Karl]

gangs are in crisis? or maybe you mean they're formed of people in crisis? I always thought it was an animal pack mentality thing

[DravenBlaque]

I had a period of misfortune ...of sorts.... (someways it was incredible fortune) Me and my husband lived without electricity and water for 8 1/2 mths. We moved onto this property in the middle of no where... and basically CAMPED for that time period. Life was so much simpler ...tougher no doubt... but it was a basic simple that felt incredible.
Every task, from day light to dark, had a purpose... and it translated into syllables of survival...
I too, found it easy to pray (connect clearly to spirituality, in whatever way ya wanna put it) I felt spent... but whole.

Hey everyone this my first time posting @ BBB . I have been reading some posts here and there and find the topics quite interesting. My wife OrganizedKhaos has always spoken highly of BBB and it’s members. This particular topic has really sparked my interest.
Kudos to Velvet Tongue for staring this thread.

Sometimes it’s nice to get away from it all

I just wanted to say that a little about my experience of the 8 ½ months without water and electric that OrganizedKhaos was talking about. It was definitely an experience that I know she and I will always draw from. We both became much more in tune with nature, the natural rhythms of life, and our own drives of creativity and such.

I remember waking with the sunrise along with birds and other early rising souls and going for walks in the hills. I fondly recall a pair of thin soled shoes I had (sort like moccasins). They allowed me feel the terrain under my feet and the energy of the earth I tread upon.

At that time it was easer to focus on the energy around me, like time I was at the top a hill sitting on an extremely large section if sandstone just sort of mediating on the life-force all around me. As I sat there with my eyes closed I felt the largeness of the earth under me and vastness of the universe around me while at the same time feeling the individual energies the life around me. As I felt this sensation I notice the silence and distance of the animals and insects and such changed. The initial interruption I created by invading their space was no longer an issue. The birds began to sing , the squirrels and deer began to move about again.

Then I felt I should open my eyes . When I did two butterflies were fluttering about and landed on my forearm and hand . I sat for long time watching them. And feeling the oneness and rhythm of everything around me.

It was an experience I will never forget

At night reading by candle light before falling asleep was so soothing .

I will always cherish the walks OrganizedKhaos and I would take in the hills while talked about the deep things we were experiencing.

I think it is important to stay in touch that side of life even though the information age has its importance as well.

I could say so much more about it all but OK covered the subject better than I ever could. She’s kewl like that.

This was “just my two-cents and change”

I look forward to getting to know everyone on BBB

[Morning Glory]

thanks for sharing that, Draven. sounds like quite a remarkable experience. It's good that you could make the most of a potentially bad situation. Welcome to the board.

[OrganizedKhaos]

I remember him coming off the hill, being completely recharged, and overflowing with presence!

This is a true story DB shared with us.
........................

It seems like our normal ...easy going... parts of life, that go over well without a hitch... fall into the volumns of pleasant life we've enjoyed, but remains for the most part, unrememberable.

The times where we've had it the hardest, makes the good times scattered thru out, the best of times.

[Velvet-Tongue]

Welcome to the board Draven . Thank you for your story.
-

I got this from another news report,

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Also ""With mobile phones, the internet and Facebook you can create a virtual world that means you need never be alone," he says. "It means that you don't ever have to be out of sight — and that doesn't allow an adolescent to experience that sense of being a bit separate, of finding one's self.

"It means you don't have a chance to mature on your own; to know who you are." "
---------------------

I have trouble argueing with it.

When you have everyone elses ideas, thoughts, voices and sounds running through your head like white noise it drowns out your own voice pretty easily. Leaving you to emulate everything you see around you while mostly ignoring yourself.

Just think of Group-Think like during a riot. Normal, relaxed people suddenly start acting like animals because everyone else around them had started to do it as well and it spreads. Or when a vote goes up and 8-10 people vote yes causing the last two to vote yes as well (since they have a strong desire to be a part of their group).