an aha

The other day I had an ephiphany.... I know we live in a two word, 30 second sound bite culture and I hate it. In my past and now current lives I have written and talked for a living...and although I speak much like I write here [sort of simply] - I am not a sound bite thinker or writer...my mind wanders and I love intellectual give and take...

I had IM set up on my computer but only used it for a few people - I just realized that it was leading me to try and say things too briefly due to its format and that I was not being clear about my feelings and was having trouble thinking about how to write in a limited space - my brain was trying to function in 30 second sound bite language...And the responses I got - due to the IM set up on a few machines was often a series of short sentences...sometimes a day or two or more after my IMs - so I'd forget what I had actually said unless I looked in the archive....and worse was the more typical response - an emoticon - or a YEAH! and then I'd have no idea to what it referred. And IMing in real time meant that I had to sit at my computer to communicate - not bad if it's a rare thing but as the main way to communicate - not my thing...

I decided that IMing was a cultural problem and part of the issue as to why we live in a sound bite culture - everyone IMs - so I notified my IM pals that I was removing IM from my computer at least for the summer and we could communicate by phone or email...

Let's see if we can change the complexity of discourse starting on a personal level.....